The Joyful Shadow
by KatanaMeister
Summary: (Previously called Soul Eater 5 Years Later) Set five years after Kishin's defeat in the anime, Maka and friends find themselves thrown once again into perilous situations, and must work together with their new teacher at the DWMA against an ominous new threat looming over Death City. P.S. There might be some Male CronaxMaka moments here, so if that's not your thing then be warned.
1. Prologue (A Warning)

PROLOGUE

 **To make it easier for those reading this, I re-edited this prologue in a more appropriate layout. I hope this helps, and I hope you enjoy. :)**

 _Africa, Madagascar,_

 _Unknown Forest,_

 _Midnight, 2 Months Ago_

The night air was still, not even a breath, and the moon continues to grins to such an extent that blood begins to drip from its teeth, calling it eerie would be somewhat of an understatement, I guess you can call it the calm before the storm.

On a cliff overlooking the Forest below, a man lights a cigarette, inhales, and then exhales the smoke, not taking his stare off the tree tops.

"I thought you hated smoking" a voice from behind pointed out, in a direct and emotionless tone.

The smoking man turns to face the source of the voice slowly, keeping the cigarette clamped in his mouth.

"Well, I wanted to know what it's like Stein; tastes like rat poison to me." The cigarette drops from his mouth and lands on the sturdy, rocky earth, only to be crushed by the man's boot. "Smoking definitely can't help when fighting."

Stein reaches into his stitched up lab coat to pull out a cigarette, lights it, begins smoking it, and starts turning the screw located at the left side of his head. "Notice anything yet?"

The unknown man turns his head to have his stare once again be fixated upon the numerous trees below.

"They're there alright, thankfully we had a favorable night for me to pick up a scent, but they haven't moved, I doubt they're aware of us." He returns his look to the poker faced man to ask a question, "Your students ready?" he is answered with a simple nod.

With a small smirk, the unknown man walks with Stein down the cliff. "Alright, it's time to deal with this group of wannabe Kishins, don't you think?"

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the cliff, a young girl laments in her mind on how it feels like an eternity they've been waiting here, Maka sits impatiently watching her friends and other fellow students attempt to pass the time.

Black Star has been doing squats since they got here, she thinks he's in the 3000s by now, Liz and Patty have been playing 'Patty' cake for the past half hour, Maka can tell Liz is getting pretty tired of it, Soul has decided to take a nap under a nearby tree a while ago, Tsubaki is sitting next to Maka taking her time to eat her packed lunch, she doesn't seem too bothered by their time spent in this jungle, Death the Kid seems very uncomfortable however.

If the duel pig tailed meister listens closely, she can hear Kid constantly mumbling something about how the jungle is asymmetrical or something like that, honestly Maka is pretty surprised at how long Kid managed to keep his cool, she guesses that his neurotic obsession has somewhat gotten better over the past 5 years...'5 years?' Maka thinks to herself.

Wow, it's been that long since the destruction of the Kishin Asura, funny how fast time seems to pass, but when that thought enters her mind, she's swiftly reminded on how soul-crushingly long it's taking Stein to tell them to move out.

Waitaminute, where's...? She takes note immediately of a long yawn which is let out from the other side of the tree Maka was sitting against.

She gets up to look around the back to find the missing member of her group of friends, the sword meister of the annoying demon sword Ragnarok, Crona.

Maka can tell that he's certainly tired today, his eyes are half closed as he lies on his back upon the dry grass, looking up at the night sky, and even though it's fairly dark, Maka could swear that she can see a small smile on his face, upon this sight, Maka finds herself smiling too.

Maka glances back to the pathway leading up to the cliff, there she can make out two figures seemingly in deep conversation with each other as they approach the campfire where everyone else is located.

She speculated that the two were Professor Stein and that other man who she has seen from time to time coming and going to and from Death City every year.

She knew next to nothing about him, aside from he looks to be around her Papa's age (which causes her eyebrow to twitch instinctively at the thought of her father), he seems to know Stein, he always seems to wear a dark brownish coloured trench coat, a dark gray coloured shirt with a blue flannel shirt over it (however it's always unbuttoned), wears a unique pair of goggles around his neck, and he always wears a black bandana across his forehead.

Suddenly, several blood curdling screams are heard from what could be considered a good distance away from them.

Everyone becomes alert in response, weapons change forms for their meisters to wield them, the trench coat man looks to Stein and says "Looks like someone's beat us to the punch. Let's go!" and with that, he runs off into the trees to locate the source of the screams, whilst Stein organizes his students to follow.

There was certainly no need to point out that there's something not right, presumably, the DWMA were the only ones who knew the location of these killers, and as he got ever closer to their camp, this trench coat wearing person had this strange but yet somewhat familiar sensation, it was, in a word, unsettling.

Finally, he discovers the enemy camp has been deserted, from the looks of it there was certainly a battle here, but no souls, the man had this feeling to follow the familiar scent, perhaps then this mystery would be solved.

As he progressed on-wards he notices Stein and his trusty students arrive at the camp, they swiftly decide to investigate.

"Being patient when to strike your prey is wise." a chilling female voice pointed out.

The man turns to his left to find a young girl, age being roughly around 13, wearing a simple white dress, which was noticeably blood stained, "...however, waiting too long will cause other predators to claim your prey as their own." this young blonde haired girl sinisterly states.

Upon closer inspection under the light of the moon, it can be seen that this 'girl' is more than meets the eye, her smile was inhumanly wide, and her eyes were glowing brightly red from within the darkness.

"Clearly there's no immoral level you won't stoop to" the man plainly retorts, the girl looks at him questionably

"Hmm? Oh! You mean this girl?" she begins examining herself before continuing "It should be noted that she was one of the...undesirables you were hunting, I just happened to find her first, and make her one of my sleeper agents, and yes I did use her to wipe out the rest of the yet to be Kishins." she proudly proclaims while continuing to maintain her disturbing smile and tone of voice, "So don't worry, no innocents were harmed, Mac."

The man who has been identified as 'Mac' by this unusual being, glares at her with disdain before bluntly saying "If you have something to say, get it over with, before I dispatch your 'Agent'."

The grinning girl looks over to the nearby camp which was far enough away from them so they can't have their conversation interrupted, and she then slowly brings her stare back to Mac.

"Those students are quite fascinating, I've been following some of them around in their missions to confirm my suspicions about their capabilities, and the results have been most favourable. I wanted a way to tell you this in person, and this seemed to be an easy way to catch your attention, I'll tell you who are the talented students I have my sights on if you meet me in that cave this time tomorrow." she points to a dark cave not too far away.

"But only you. Stein and the children should return to Death City, wouldn't want anyone to spoil the moment, would we? Agreed?"

Mac ponders this for a brief moment, never breaking eye contact, he then reaches his decision, "Agreed." as this is said, Mac pulls out a katana from under his trench coat to swiftly behead the grinning girl, he then reaches out to the soul left behind.

It was noticeably a mostly black coloured soul with crimson stripes, Mac grips it tightly, as this is being done a bright blue light began to emit from under his grasp, until there was nothing left but an average red coloured soul.

Mac places it in his mouth, begins to start chewing at it, and finally swallows, tasted a bit bitter he thought.

 _America,Nevada,_

 _Outskirts of Death City,_

 _Present Day_

As he approaches the gates, he can't help but say "Boy, it's good to be back! I missed you Death City!"

Mac adjusts the rucksack he's been carrying on his back to the city, tightened the knot of the black bandana he was wearing across his forehead and progressed onwards, and despite of the troubling news he must report back to Lord Death, he once again can't help but smile warmly at the idea of finally settling down for awhile and meeting up with his dear old friends.


	2. Chp 1 (A Request)

**CHAPTER 1**

The four individual figures sit around the table within the cartoonish looking 'Death Room', the silence was deafening.

From their expressions alone, it was clear that the subject matter was serious.

One of the men starts winding up the screw in his head and breaks the ice with his emotionless voice, "And he told you this himself?"

To his left hand side a trench coat wearing man ruffles the front and back of his dark brown hair, and responds with a nod.

The red haired man on his right straightens his tie, he appears visibly troubled by their conversation, he looks to the trench coat man.

"How do we even know we can trust a word he says Mac?" he outrightly asks.

Mac looks down at the empty cup at his end of the table, he breathes in deeply, "It's true, we have been tricked by him before Spirit." he lifts his head up to look at Spirit with determined eyes before stating grimly "But, I know better than to underestimate his threats, I've learned that much from the last 18 years hunting him down and fixing the damage caused by him."

Spirit lowers his eyebrows to admit that Mac has a point.

"Well, it would appear that we must take precautions in light of this new evidence presented to us." the cheery voice of Lord Death proclaimed aloud, the three men turn their gaze upon the grim reaper as he gulps down the last of his tea before continuing.

"Clearly we must keep a close eye on these students, and have everyone trained extra hard in preparation for this 'event' our old friend has in store for our academy."

All three men agree to this suggestion by simply nodding.

Mac straightens up as he sits, seemingly eager to ask something, Lord Death takes notice of this.

"Hmm? Is there something you wish to add Mac?"

"Yes, Lord Death, would you permit me the chance to take these chosen students as my own students?"

This request catches the attention of everyone present in the Death Room. Death ponders this suggestion for a moment "That's an odd request, I thought you didn't want to be a teacher?"

Mac smiles softly, scratching the back of his head with his left hand "The main reason I ask you this, is to grant me the chance to unlock the hidden capabilities these Weapons and Meisters are claimed to possess, and then teach them how to use it when the push comes to shove."

Leaning back a bit, Lord Death stares at him, with his mask preventing any suggestion that his stare is one of confusion, agreement, or even refusal, Mac couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous as he waited for his answer.

"Wait a minute!" Spirit interjects, "Me and Stein are pretty capable to unlock whatever powers they have ourselves, and no offence to you Mac, but we're more familiar with teaching and of who the students are better than you."

"You are correct about that, however, you three know fairly well of my ability to tap into such wavelengths and unlock these hidden powers; and besides..."

The three listening men lean in to hear more, "...what I've learned the past eighteen years of what HE's capable of, could prove to be invaluable enough to over come what he has in store for us."

To break the short silence after that statement, Lord Death lets out an amused chuckle "Well, there are no objections from me, now what about you two? Stein, Spirit?"

Both men look at each other and then back to Lord Death, a small smirk suddenly appears on Stein's face "As long as you don't completely steal them from my lessons, I have no problems with your suggestion." sighed Stein.

Spirit shrugs, "Okay, I have no problems either. But Mac, if you push her too hard, I won't forgive you, alright?" Spirit stated plainly.

A fond chuckle escapes from Mac's mouth in response, "Don't worry, Spirit, I promise not to push them too far beyond their limits."

After another half hour discussing the details on how this will work in the new school year, Lord Death decides to conclude the meeting.

"Okay, I think we're about done here, remember now in one week a new school year begins for our students, so prepare yourselves. Professor Stein you'll take them in the morning, while you Mac shall take the eight, or I suppose it's nine students selected in the afternoon."

The three men nod in agreement.

"Now let's not let us get too worried in these upcoming school terms about these threats, I'm sure we can win the end!" Lord Death proudly announces while holding up two fingers from his comedically large left hand, the three attendees stare at him with a confused glare, no doubt thinking to themselves 'easier said than done'.

Lord Death stands up from the table, "And before we all go, allow me to be the first to welcome you Professor Mac Tire as a fresh new teacher for the DWMA! I most certainly hope your time here will be enjoyable."

Lord Death, Spirit, and Stein begin clapping in applause, all the while Mac Tire sits still, with a barely noticeable blush now on his face, "Aw shucks guys. Thank you so much for accepting me, I promise to give it my all."


	3. Chp 2 (Class is in Session)

**CHAPTER 2**

"Is this really everyone for this class?"

Maka's question makes her friends wonder about that possibility, aside from Black Star who has been doing press ups since they got here.

"M...maybe ev...everyone else is late?" Uttered Crona, who's sitting to Maka's left.

Liz looks over to her weapon Meister on her right questionably. "Are we too early Kid?"

Kid pulls out a pocket watch and starts comparing the time between it and the clock located above the black board in front of him, the time was the same, 5mins to 1.00pm, satisfied with his watch being correct, he places it back into his pocket.

"No not too early, in another 5 minutes class should start, I suspect that Maka's theory is correct." Kid said to answer Liz's question.

Patty continues to slump over her desk with a dull expression on her face. "I'm bored, and I ran out of paper to make more cute animals."

Liz leans over her desk to look past Kid only to behold her bored little sister, and a bunch of little animals made out of paper, lined up on her desk.

Liz then felt compelled to ask... "Hey, wait, where did you get the paper in the first place?"

Patty lifts her head and turns it to her left to stare at her sister blankly. "I got them from these." Patty lifts several of her exercise books (for students to write notes down in class), it was clear that all of the paper from them have been pulled out, Liz gives an awkward stare as she puts two and two together.

"Patty! What the heck? You need that paper for school work, not for art!"

"But I'm bored Liz."

"So are the rest of us! It's school!"

"Hey, could you give me some of your paper? Please sis."

"Don't give me that puppy eye look! These are mine! I don't want to fail class!"

"Aww, you're no fun."

At that moment, the class door opens, everyone present looks to the door from their seats, a brown haired man in a trench coat, wearing a black bandana walks in, he takes notice of the 8 people present in the class.

"Oh good everyone's here." He smiles and walks to the desk in front of the black board.

The students recognise this man as the same person they've seen around Death City from time to time, but they've never had the chance to strike a conversation with him before.

The man lifts a piece of chalk and writes 'Professor Mac Tire' in a large font for all to see, he then turns to face the class.

"Good evening class, I'm you're new teacher for your evening classes in the foreseeable future, my name is Professor Mac Tire, but Professor Mac is okay with me." He says with a smile.

The room went quiet for a bit when he said that, the crickets made it clear that the ice needed to be broken.

"Or I guess Mac is fine, yeah actually that does sound better. Yeah lets keep this informal atmosphere."

Everyone took notice of his unusual accent, some words sounded somewhat Canadian, however that unmistakable Irish tone when he pronounced certain words made it clear that he's of Celtic descent, why would he try to conceal his natural accent?

Mac then walks to his desk, to lift a clipboard consisting of the student's names.

Black Star returns to his seat with a large devious grin plastered on his face, while he rubs his hands together like an evil mastermind.

Tsubaki looks to her Meister on her left, wondering what mischief he's up to this time.

"Hehehe, Yes fall into my trap." Whispered Black Star to himself. "New teachers are always the best for this prank."

Tsubaki became increasingly more worried when she heard that, to learn more she leaned over to Black Star to whisper a question.

"What do you mean, Black Star?"

As he attempted to conceal his laughter from prematurely bursting out, he sated Tsubaki's curiosity by saying... "I changed the names on the clipboard into funny, joke ones, it's going to be hilarious."

Tsubaki's eyes widened in response, she started to imagine the poor new teacher being embarrassed by her friends laughing at him, which would cause him to blush and it could result in a punishment for the whole class.

Tsubaki was ready to stop Mac from reading, however she halted in her tracks when he said... "Well, it appears the names here have been tampered with."

Black Star looks in shock that his plan has been thwarted, Mac continued. "And even if I wasn't told all of your names prior, these false names here are so ridiculous that no sane person would ever fall for them."

Black Star's face further contorts in horror as Mac continues to point out the holes in this prank.

"Also, all of the actual names of the students are typed, not written, so... that's an interesting mistake to make."

Tsubaki was starting to feel a bit sorry for her Meister as his plan is further crumbled into dust by their new teacher, but she knew that this served Black Star right for doing something so stupid.

"Now I'll let this little prank slide for today, just as long future attempts won't disrupt the class, please."

Mac placed the clipboard holding the tampered paper down on the desk, and then takes a piece of paper from his coat, opens it and says... "Okay, I'll read out the names here alphabetically and then you'll tell me a little bit about yourselves..."

Black Star's jaw further drops, allowing the realisation that there was truly no way the teacher would fall for his prank, to sink in.

"...but, I suppose I should tell you a bit about me first, just to be fair." finishes Mac.

Mac walks to the front of his desk and leans back against it while still facing his students.

"As I stated before, I'm Mac Tire, and I'm a sword Meister, but with no weapon partner, I was briefly a student here in DWMA until a...certain incident happened..."

The students present in the room became curious at this hesitated statement, what kind of incident could've happened that would cause him to leave?

"...and ever since, I've been going to and from Death City for the last eighteen years now, but in light of certain recent events, which I will elaborate on later, I decided to be the one to teach you."

Kid had numerous thoughts creeping into his mind, perhaps this 'Mac Tire' is referring to the 'Lucifer Incident' roughly eighteen years ago, Kid wasn't too familiar about the incident itself aside from that it concerned the DWMA all those years ago.

"Okay, now lets learn more about you, okay, first on the list is... Black Star."

Black Star shakes off his shock at his prank being foiled, jumps up on his desk, and returned to his normal cocky self before announcing.

"I, am he, who will surpass God himself, the greatest warrior of all time, the sole survivor of the Star Clan, Black Star!"

There was silence, Maka's eye began to twitch in annoyance, Crona has covered his ears, clearly the noisy Black Star's boasting has startled him, everyone else aside from Patty was looking at Black Star with an unimpressed look on their faces, Patty decided to play with her paper animals instead of listening.

"Well then..." Uttered Mac. "...clearly you aren't the master of pranking however."

Black Star tensed up in response. "Y...you knew? I...I...I mean, what are you talking about Prof?" Black Star began laughing awkwardly instead of boastfully.

"I forgot to mention that one of your teachers, and personal friend of mine, Sid, warned me that you try the same prank with every new teacher, and besides...you literally signed your name on the sheet you tampered with." Answered Mac bluntly, showing the clipboard with Black Star's signature taking up 75% of the page itself.

Black Star stood there dumbfounded, then returned to his seat slowly with his head lowered in defeat, curse his pride getting the best of him.

"Alright next we have Crona, would you mind telling me a bit about yourself?"

Crona looked down at his desk for a moment, struggling with the pressure of having everyone waiting for him to speak; before he could, Ragnarok popped out of his spine and started yelling.

"Oh hell no! I'm not going to wait to tell my story after this wimp!" He starts pounding on Crona's head.

Maka got her trusty book ready to 'Maka Chop' this little bully, but she stops when Mac speaks.

"I take it you're Ragnarok? Well, I was going to eventually get to you, but due to your rudeness however, that's not going to happen."

From the way Maka heard him, Mac's voice was taking a more serious tone; she could tell from where she sat, Mac looked more visibly unimpressed than when Black Star spoke.

"Oh, I'm so sorry mister teacher." Ragnarok said in a mocking voice, "Yeah right, like I give a crap about your 'manners'..."

Mac began to approach Crona's desk as Ragnarok was distracted with his ranting.

"...so you can shove your pansy ass kindness in yo...argh!"

Mac interrupts the little weapon's insult by grabbing its head with his hand, since Maka was sitting next to Crona, she can see Mac's face a lot more clearly, from the few barley noticeable freckles on his cheeks, to the bristles forming the outline of a beard; Maka at one point could've sworn that she saw his eyes glow slightly blue as he restrained Ragnarok with ease, and then the weapon began squirming under his grasp, Crona has kept his eyes shut the entire time.

Ragnarok finally stops wriggling around when Mac's eyes return to normal, Mac releases him and allows a smirk to appear on his face.

"Now, do we understand each other Ragnarok?"

The demon weapon quickly responds in an uncharacteristic way for it, in a respectable manner.

"Y...yes sir, understood sir, sorry to bother everyone sir."

Ragnarok starts sweating nervously and salutes to Mac, who responds with. "Thank you Ragnarok, you're dismissed."

With that, the demon sword returns back into Crona's spine.

Mac then lowers himself down to be at Crona's height as the said nervous sword Meister was sitting down, Mac smiles warmly at him before asking... "Are you okay?"

Crona glances at him, and nods slightly.

"Wh...what did you do to Ragnarok?"

"Oh, I just had a private conversation with him, just so he can watch his manners in future."

"Oh, I...I see." Crona said quietly.

Mac stands up straight, walks back to his own desk, to the spot he was in previously.

"So, would you please tell us a little about yourself Crona?" Asked Mac, almost as if Ragnarok never interrupted him in the first place.

"Uh...um...okay, m...my n...name is Crona, and my weapon is Ragnarok, I...I...I...live with Maka, Soul, Ragnarok and Blair, I...I'm not too good around people sometimes, but thanks to mu...my friends, especially Maka, I'm g...getting better these last 5 years, even to the point that me and Maka...uh...um..."

As he says this he begins to blush and Maka does so as well, Crona has indeed come a long way, however, he was clearly not comfortable openly talking about his personal life, and his relationship with Maka in front of people.

Maka then smilies affectionately.

"Thank you very much Crona." and she kisses his right cheek ever so gently, Crona couldn't help but blush even more so.

Mac smiles again. "Thank you for that Crona. Now Death the Kid, you're next."

Kid straightens up in his seat. "I'm Death the Kid, my father is Lord Death, my two weapons are Liz and Patty right here."

Both Liz and Patty both wave.

"Hi! I'm Patty and this is my big sis, and I like animals!" Patty said aloud as she hugs her paper animals tightly.

Then Liz introduces herself. "Hello, I'm Liz Thompson, and I'm sorry, but my sister has used all of the paper from her exercise books to make those animals there, is it okay we borrow any spare books you have?"

"Liz, Patty, did you both forget that Professor Mac Tire has said that he was going to ask who we are alphabetically?" Stated Kid in a slightly agitated tone.

Mac quickly responded. "No it's okay, no harm done, and here are some spare books for your sister."

Mac lifts three spare books from his desk, walks over to Liz, and gives her the books, Liz then thanks him, and he returns to his desk to continue reading off the names.

Crona leans over to Maka to whisper something to her. "Uh...Maka?"

Maka answers him. "Yes?"

"W...why is he not mad at Patty and Liz for speaking too early like when Ragnarok did?"

Maka looks to Crona. "Well, i guess because unlike Ragnarok, Liz and Patty are far more polite, and are not intentionally rude."

"O...oh..I see, t...thank you." Crona then returns to his upright position on his seat.

"Maka?"

Maka jumped in her seat in alertness when Mac called her name. "Uh...yes sir?"

Mac looks to her. "It's your turn."

"Oh, yeah that's right, well I'm Maka Albarn, I'm a scythe Meister, and only a month ago I made my partner a Death Scythe, I admit he's not as strong as the one my mother made my... father to be, but he'll get there eventually."

Soul, who has remained quiet up to now, looks at Maka as if he took Maka's statement slightly as somewhat insulting.

Mac on the other hand, takes notice of Maka's tone of voice when she mentioned her father, this proves that Stein's claims of Maka's and her father's relationship (which he has previously told him a few years ago) were correct.

"Very fascinating Maka, and congratulations to you and Soul for your recent accomplishment. Now, I believe it's your turn Soul."

Soul thinks for a moment in what he might say, he then opens with... "I'm Soul Eater Evans, I was recently made into a Death Scythe, I live with Maka, Crona, that annoying little demon sword, and a promiscuous magical cat woman called Blair, who Maka and I once killed."

Mac, stood there in silence, clearly letting Soul's story sink in.

He finally opens his mouth to say... "Uh huh. Well... that was interesting Soul, thank you for that."

"MAKA CHOP!"

Soul's head lands on his desk with a noticeable dent on his head, Maka then puts her book down in front on her, as she attempts to calm herself by breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth.

Soul then quickly recovers and shouts at Maka.

"What the hell was that for?!"

Maka glances at Soul and states. "That was for making everyone feel uncomfortable."

"I did no such thing!" Retorted Soul.

"Now, now, lets not argue. Tsubaki, can you tell us all something about yourself, before I explain why we're here today?"

The tension swiftly leaves the air and Tsubaki answers her new teacher.

"Well Professor Mac, my name is Tsubaki, my Meister is Black Star, and I think I speak for all of us when I say, we welcome you as our new teacher."

"Well, thank you Tsubaki, that's very kind of you, I look forward to teaching you all in the future. Now that we've introduced ourselves, I think it's high time I tell you why you eight, or I suppose when including Ragnarok, nine students, have been selected to be here in the evenings on school days."

Everyone listens closely to what their teacher has to say.

Mac pondered on how to put this story into words, trying to gather thoughts together in order to explain what he can for the time being, without freaking them out.

Eventually, he takes in a sharp breath of air, and begins his story.


	4. Chp 3 (A Bit of Back-Story)

**Chapter 3**

"Well to give a brief synopsis..." Started Mac "We at the DWMA have taken notice of the resurfacing of a very dangerous man, who terrorized this very city eighteen years ago, during the 'Lucifer Incident'."

Mac took a short pause after that statement, to allow his new students to absorb all of this information before he could continue.

"Ever since then, I have been tracking him down around the world, but he always evades me every time. That is until two months ago, in Madagascar..."

A light bulb figuratively lights up in Kid's head after hearing this, he remembers that time they were in Madagascar hunting this group of yet-to-be Kishins, but he and the rest of the students had to leave since someone else beat them to the punch. He found that particularly strange, and none of the higher-ups like his Father or Stein have ever brought that night up since then, almost as if they knew something... but what?

Mac continues with his speech, "...he sought me out and told me of his interest in...certain students within the DWMA, and of their untapped potential..."

Mac could tell from the faces of the students in front of him (aside from Patty who's still trying to put two and two together), that they can tell where this conversation is going.

"And as some of you may have guessed it. You guys are those students."

Kid and the others look to one-another in confusion, who is this man, what could he possibly want with them, and just how dangerous is he if he's capable of instilling this much concern and caution from the DWMA?

Mac continues his story "Needless to say, that's why we're here. I volunteered to help each of you reach your full power, in preparation of whatever he's planning for the city." Mac looks to each of the shocked youthful faces in front of him for a brief moment; oh he hopes he hasn't freaked them out too much, and finishes his speech with...

"We, at the DWMA, have come to know this man under several aliases, of which he has stolen from the very victims he makes as his puppets; however, the one name he refers to himself and the one we have come to identify him as, is... Zarroth."

A collective chill races up the spines of each of the young students present when that name is announced, almost as if, his very name itself is pure evil.

Wanting to be free of this silence that has now once again clouded the very classroom they're sitting in, Maka's hand springs upwards to catch Mac's attention.

Mac takes notice of Maka's action and address her, "Do you have a question Maka?"

"Yes sir." Responded Maka eagerly, "If this man is so dangerous, how come we've only now heard about him?"

"Excellent question. Well, that was a collective decision from all of us who knew the truth, I mean informing all of Death City, or even just all of the DWMA that there's a man who can control other people from physical contact, and could potentially possess numerous other abilities of which we cannot fathom... well... lets just say, that wouldn't really raise morale would it?" answered Mac, in a nonchalant tone.

Once again, Mac's students sat there dumbfounded; sensing that their own morale has severely plummeted from when this conversation started, he attempts to reassure them. However...

"How the hell are we so supposed to compete against something like that?" A very concerned Soul Eater Evans asks aloud, "What's to stop him from taking over Death City?"

In everyone else's mind, they all agree with Soul, surely there has to be some reason why they're not already under Zarroth's control.

Mac answers directly, "Zarroth would see that as too easy."

At that, everyone's breathing halted, and room had become silent.

"He's as sadistic as he's cunning. He enjoys breaking his opponents down slowly over time and allowing them to rebuild themselves over and over again, until he gets bored, and only then does he decide to put an end to his 'game'. However, if we prepare ourselves appropriately, we can use his own desire for fun against him."

Something about Mac's certainty concerning this whole situation didn't sit right with Kid. How does he know this much about this man's personality and tactics? And if his Father knew something about this, why did he not tell him sooner? Kid desired the truth. Why, at pretty much the last second are they only NOW learning about what really happened during the Lucifer Incident?

As Kid was about to interject Mac's speech...

"Well, that's enough about that for today" ended Mac.

Kid immediately flinched in confusion and frustration.

"B...b...but surely Professor, we need to know everything?" responded the bothered son of Death.

Expecting such a statement to be made, Mac answers his question.

"Well my logic being that it will be tricky for you guys to absorb all this exposition all at once. But fear not, I promise to eventually explain everything to you, all in due time."

Slowly and reluctantly Kid accepts this statement.

"But, of course..." added Mac, causing the members of the class lean forward in their chairs to listen closely.

"...another part of my job is to teach you all about the history of the Lucifer Incident too. So, you'll need to read these books for more detailed info."

Mac points to the left hand corner of the room from students' perspective, where a stack of textbooks lay. If one were to guess, there are enough for the students to take three textbooks each, and they look pretty heavy too.

 **Okay, I should mention here, that this was the first chapter that I did not enjoy writing, due to it's heavy reliance on exposition to fill in certain story details. But much like Mac in this chapter, I don't want to dump a pile of the exposition on you too early, just that there was an incident that happened before the main characters were born, and there's a man who can be a very real and dangerous threat to the DWMA. Other chapters after this one will attempt to further fill in the gaps in their own way; so be on the look out for Chapter 4 (Something Wicked this way Comes).**


	5. Chp 4 (Something Wicked This Way Comes)

**Chapter 4**

Darkness. That's all that can be seemingly found in this cave. Dark, and neverending.

However, appearences can be decieving. If one were to possess an ability such as soul perception, then it would be clear that this is nothing more than an illusion, conjured up to keep the curious at bay.

Yes, if one did have that kind of ability, then that person would find a spiralling stairwell, decending to the den of a witch. A witch, that has cheated Death, in more ways than one.

Three passage ways can be found at the end of the stairwell; the passage way on the left leads to a bedroom, it's a simple layout, a single bed, a wardrobe, a desk with chair, and a door leading to a bathroom.

The right passage conceals two rooms next to each other; one is a kitchen, and the other is a lab, housing several kinds of chemicals, medical utensils, and multiple jars containing a wide variety of samples of bodily features from numerous creatures.

And behind the middle passage, is the library; this is the largest room, there are many books stacked on the bookshelves on all four of the room's walls, from the ground to the ceiling, reaching all the way up to twenty five feet, complete with step ladders and a metal platform circling around the room along side the upper level of the library. And in the middle of the room, there is a single, solitary desk, where a woman with youthful features sits, quietly pouring over eight hundered years of her experience and knowledge onto a blank canvas.

The torch lit room is bright enough to unveil plenty of this woman's physical attributes: the black body-length hooded suit she's wearing, her spiked styled blonde hair with two long strands of that said hair extending downwards from both sides of her face and entwining together when they reach her chest, the yellow irises she possesses, the black fingernail and toenail polish with yellow arrows pointing upwards, and the long, black, dotted snake tattoos on both of her arms. There is only one witch who meets this physical criteria, the snake witch herself, Medusa Gorgon.

For the last five years, Medusa has been in hiding. Ever since her apparent death at the hands of Maka Albarn, Soul Evans, and their Genie Hunter attack.

It was the perfect way to drop off the DWMA's radar, for awhile at least. It provided time, time for her to find a safe haven to hide in, time for her to restore her research on the Black Blood, and time for her to rebuild her soul again to its once former glory.

After all this time, only recently has she finally succeeded in fulfilling these three tasks; however, with all the time that has passed, she honestly has no clue on how strong her son Crona, and his friends are currently, leaving her at a disadvantage on her conquest to destroy the DWMA.

The question is: how could she level the playing field.

The Gorgon sister stops writing, abruptly. She can sense that someone has found her hideaway.

From time to time, a few nosey individuals would accidentally stumble across the staircase. Nothing to worry about though, they're no threat, and easy enough to dispose of. But this, was different.

It was a chilling and an unsettling feeling, that only grew as whatever she's sensing is drawing nearer to her.

Medusa got up from her seat to stand in the middle of the room, awaiting this approaching entity, wishing to sate her curiosity.

The flames of the torches surrounding the library dimmed, the shadows extended their reach from the four corners of the room to the centre where Medusa is standing, concealing the majority of the library within darkness.

About seventeen feet away, the door begins creaking open from the other side. Medusa is unable to see who this person is, but she knows this sensation, she has felt it before, she had almost forgotten it. The only other time she sensed this particular Soul Wavelength was...

"Eighteen years ago, I set into motion a plan to eradicate the DWMA from existence, and all those who resided there." A deep and echoing disembodied voice proclaimed.

Medusa remained in the centre of the room, knowing that there was no way of escaping by herself; despite her best efforts to conceal it, at this moment, her fear was the dominant emotion.

The mysterious voice continued, "Of course I needed to deal with other loose ends before hand. But despite how long it took before I carried out my ultimatum, everything was going according to plan. That was until half a decade ago."

The witch took notice of while the voice seems to be surrounding the entire room, she can hear other sounds of someone walking across the upper level of the library, someone coming down the step ladders, and of someone walking around where she stood whilst hiding in the shadows, all at the same time; almost as if he's all around the room; and surrounding her, like how a wolf pack would stalk their prey.

"Imagine my surprise, when I discovered that Asura was awoken from his slumber early; and not only that, but his resurfacing inadvertently caused the return of Arachne, and almost destroyed the DWMA..."

The room goes deathly quiet for a brief moment, no sounds, and the voice could no longer be heard. Until that same voice whispered the rest of sentence into Medusa's ear, from behind.

"...Without my consent."

This causes the the near terrified witch to tense up, now that she's certain who it is, she definetly knows that there is no way to fight or escape from him, not alone at least, her vector arrows would have next to no effect on the likes of him.

Seconds pass by, but it feels like an eternity before he speaks again, still remaining a few inches behind the witch.

"Now, with everything in mind, answer me this with full honesty. Why should I not tear your soul from your body?"

Medusa thought quickly. What could she say? What took him so long to finally come and kill her? Why did he even allow...? An epiphany hit her, raising her confidence enough to smirk and respond to this shadowy figure in her usual seductive and yet menacing voice.

"You said that you planned on using Asura for your own goals, and if that's true then you had to use Corruption Wavelength to control him..."

Medusa turns to face the man shrouded in the shadows before finishing. "...And even though he was awakened early as you said, you would've still been able to control him, but you didn't. You were curious on what he would do, so much that you allowed him to run off and do what he wanted, making what you said about how he almost destroyed Death's beloved school without your consent, false."

The tall figure in the shadows, remained silent; and then began chuckling to himself.

"Heheh, correct. You haven't changed in the slightest, Lady Medusa; quite surprising, when you take into consideration what you've been through these last five years."

Medusa continues to smile whilst answering with... "It took a little longer to find a second host when my soul was pieced together again, and a bit longer still for this body to change into how it is now; but my will has and shall always remain intact despite how I look, Lord Zarroth."

Whilst his body still remained clouded in the darkness, Zarroth pulls down his hood with his right hand, and removes the crimson Jack 'O Lantern style mask from his face with his left hand.

Medusa could barely make out his facial features in the dark, the two most obvious things she could see clear enough was his long, messy, dark hair that reached down to the nape of his neck, and his ever glowing crimson coloured eyes that shone in the dark; those eyes remained fixated on the witch, unblinking, and full of malice. His stare sent shivers down Medusa's back; if he wished it, she would died a thousand painful deaths in an instant. The thought filled Medusa with fear and a rush of excitement.

Zarroth spoke up; his voice wasn't as deep as when he wore the mask, but his menacing aura was still very much present. "I did not come just to visit however, I came for your assistance."

Medusa raised a curious eyebrow. "Could this concern your plan?"

Zarroth grinned. "Everything I did has always concerned my plan." He begins circling Medusa slowly as he continued, never taking his otherworldly eyes off her.

"Your own little scheme pushed mine back five years, I had to wait till you've returned back to the land of the living. As luck would have it however, the Kishin's own demise had shown me something truly facinating. A handful of students caught my eye, and when they brought down Asura by using his own childish fear against him, I've kept them under surveillance. Heheheheheheh. I was not disappointed, I learned who they were, saw what they could be capable of if given the right... motivation, and I even witnessed your own son displaying some equally intriguing potential hmself."

He stops walking, and continues debriefing Medusa. "I've come to realise that if there's more fun to be had from making an enemy out of these gifted children, then I would need to raise the stakes, so to speak. And that's where you come in."

Medusa could only ponder what he could possibly ask of her, that he cannot accomplish himself.

"Surely you can just as easily use your Corruption Wavelength to extract what I know, and manipulate my soul to your will?"

"Of course. But I would sooner deface the finest art piece imaginable before even considering to tamper with such a perfectly, ravishing, sadistic soul as yours. No Medusa, I respect your talent and intellect too much to do such a thing. Now with all that said, I believe we should be off to recruit the first of the two others I need to progress my plan."

"And who may that be?" asked Medusa.

"The Queen of the Bloodsuckers, Empusa the Necromancer."

Medusa tried to remain poker faced, but hearing that name, caused her right eye to instinctively twitch. Of all the people in the world she has to be affiliated with, she would prefer if it wasn't Empusa... again.

 **This maybe an appropriate point to just clarify that while this fanfic will be centred around before and after the anime, there will be the occasional reference to the manga. And seeing as how I've never watched Soul Eater NOT, it's very unlikely that themes, elements, and characters from that show will be referenced at all (in other words, NOT is not in the same canon as this fanfic); I bring this up now because there is one thing I will intentionally bring over from it when we next meet Medusa, can't say a lot about it right now, but just bare in mind that what I'm taking from NOT will be modified to fit in with this story. No doubt this is all very confusing, and I'm sorry about that, but... you'll see eventually.**


	6. Chp 5 (Maka, Crona, Soul, and that Cat)

**Chapter 5**

Well... that was... a different kind of School day than what she was expecting.

Maka and her friends have caught the curiosity of a man who can control people through physical contact, in retaliation they got a new teacher who can presumably help them reach their full potential or something like that, and Maka and her friends have to take three heavy textbooks (about a war, that for some reason... next to no one knows about) back with them; all things considered... could be worse.

Currently it was just Maka, Soul, and Crona; the rest of the gang had split up for the day to their homes.

Maka's head is full with questions. As of right now, she was pondering about the mysterious Lucifer Incident that transpired eighteen years ago. Why does no one talk about it in detail? How did it come to be? Who was involved? Were the rumours she heard about it at least somewhat true? Or...

"Hey, Earth to Maka."

Maka turns to face her talking weapon partner questionably.

"You gonna stare at the door all day, or are you going open it so we can get in our apartment?" continued Soul in a tone that hinted he was very tired.

Maka came to her senses and opened the door, now she can relax at home without any inconvie...

Suddenly, Blair pounces in the air as the door opens fully, transforming into her naked human form just before she lands right on top of Soul, glomping him to the ground.

Soul remained in shock with his nose bleeding while Blair continues to cling onto him, Crona on the other hand, began to turn red in embarrassment and turned away from the sight only behold Maka furiously rush into her apartment, see her take out one of the heavy textbooks she was given by Mac, dump her bag on the chair, and then stomp back out with that said book, looming over the benign Blair, and raising the brick of a book over her head.

"Blair..." Maka's tone was one of sheer annoyance and anger, "What have I told you about being publically naked in our apartment?!"

Crona kept his back turned from Maka's barrage of 'Maka Chops' upon the unsuspecting Blair, and the poor unfortunate Soul who happened to be in the way. But, from what he can hear, it was pretty violent.

One brutal onslaught later... Maka finally cooled down from her fury, with Crona's help, before things could get out hand, while Blair and Soul sat on the floor recovering from their (or rather Blair's) punishment.

When the mood lifted, Maka finds herself once again pondering. This time about their strange new teacher. And despite his warning about this 'Zarroth' person, and all of this talk about tapping into their hidden potential, Mac decides to delay his explanation about what happened eighteen years ago, that's somewhat of a worrying thought, but surely Lord Death must have his reasons to assign them with Professor Mac Tire, so she'll trust his judgement.

Soul, after recovering from that vicious attack, eventually heads off to his room, probably to sleep off the pain; Blair does the same, leaving Crona and Maka alone in the living room.

Crona, feeling a little more comfortable talking out loud, now that it's just him and Maka in the room, tries to strike a conversation, in his usual timid manner.

"So M...Maka?"

"Hmm?"

Crona briefly pauses, wondering how to ask her this question.

"W...w...well, what did you th...think about P...Professor Mac Tire?"

Maka responds with... "Well I found him to be... a strange guy, but he seems okay."

Crona had remained still until Maka finished speaking.

"Yeah, I agree MakAAHH!"

Before Crona could finish his sentence, a frantic Ragnarok bursts from his spine, breathing in and out in quick successions. Maka's facial expression morphs into one of annoyance when the little demon sword had finally reared his ugly head back into re-emergence from earlier today.

"Nice to see you again, Mini-Ragnarok. For awhile there, I thought when Professor Mac had put you in your place, we were blessed to never have to deal with you ever again." Sighed a disappointed Maka.

Ragnarok, stared at her with contempt in his eyes, and responded... "First of all, what the shit cow?! Don't even joke about that! Secondly, he's not here is he?"

The left eyebrow of the weat-blond haired scythe Meister began to rise in curiosity.

"No. Of course he's not here. Why woul...?"

"Oh thank whatever god or gods there might be looking done upon me!" The relieved demon sword happily proclaims aloud.

The two Meisters stare at the little demon, who's wiping away the nervous sweat from his head.

Ragnarok looks back at them. "Do you have any idea who that guy was?!"

Crona and Maka look to each other, and then back to Ragnarok with confused stares.

Crona speaks up. "He...he's our new tea...teacher."

"I didn't mean that you moron!" Shouts Ragnarok, pounding on Crona's head.

Maka reaches out with her right hand, to pull the little bully away from his timid swordsman Meister. Maka lifts the same textbook she used to pound Blair and Soul to the ground, in-front of Ragnarok's face, in a threatening manner.

"Just get to the point Ragnarok." She states.

Ragnarok wriggles within Maka's grasp for a few seconds; but he inevitably calms down, and proceeds with what he was trying to say.

"Fine. It was like...eighteen years ago. I think. Before I became this pip-squeak's blood substitute." He motions to Crona.

"It's kinda fuzzy, but I remember being a Meisterless Demon Sword, minding my own business. Then one day, these other demons show up in my cave, saying they would feed me as many souls as I can eat if I could help in a war or something like that. So of course I agree. What self-respecting demon would turn down such an offer?"

Maka began to roll her eyes. Just where was this back-story going?

Ragnarok continues. "But the literal SECOND I say yes, these two hooded weirdoes show the hell out of no-where, cutting down those demons I met. I had to do something, they were killing my meal ticket. So I tried to stop them; but to cut to long story short, they caught me off guard and both wielded me briefly to finish off what's left of those other demons."

Ragnarok pauses for a second, looking down at the ground, both of the Meisters could tell he's disturbed about something.

"I will never forget... those strange sensations I felt when they held me. The touch of one of them felt like I was being branded by a fire poker; and other guy's touch was the opposite, his hands were icy, and he gave off this very... weird feeling."

Maka, feeling impatient with the demon sword speaks up.

"Look, as interesting as this is, it's getting late, so could you get to how this has anything to do with Professor Mac?"

"I'm getting to it, dumb-ass! The point is, that there was only one other time I felt that same burning pain, and that was earlier today when that psycho new teacher of yours grabbed me."

For a few seconds, silence engulfs the room, until the pink haired boy decides to break it.

"So, you're s...saying, that Professor Mac was w...one of those hooded men?"

"Of course that's what I'm saying, you numbskull!" Replied the agitated Ragnarok, who hits Crona hard on the head.

Maka retaliates by slamming the heavy textbook upon the rude little guy's noggin, which was enough for him to shrink away back into Crona's spine.

Maka places the book down on the table near her, and tends to the hurting Crona.

"You okay?"

Crona nods.

Maka smiles, and starts gently rubbing the spot on his head where Ragnarok had hit him.

"If what he said was correct, then one of these days I gotta ask the Professor how he's able to do that, it would make the time spent with that little nuisance so much easier." Sighed the hopeful Maka.

Crona, though silently agreeing, couldn't quite help but say..."Well, he has gotten less violent over the years, f...for the most part."

"Yeah I guess that's true... Wait a minute." A moment of realisation dawns on Maka. "Ragnarok said that he might of met Mac eighteen years ago, right?"

Crona wonders where Maka's going with this, but answers with a simple nod.

"Crona... what else happened eighteen years ago?" Asked Maka, attempting to let the same realisation dawn on Crona.

Crona thought about that. His eyes scan across the room as he ponders; he halts his stare at the textbook on the table that read... of course!

Crona faced Maka once again before answering."The Lucifer Incident."

"Exactly." replied Maka.

The two Meisters' curiosity became so great, they immediately began to analyse the lore of the textbooks, thankfully the books had a fair amount of illustrations and pictures to keep their interest.

After awhile of reading through as much as they could of the first textbook for more answers, both Meisters began to feel drowsy. There was no way they were going to take all of this information in; at best all they could remember from what they read, was that the war involved demons and various branches of the DWMA.

It's probably for the best the two go to bed, and forget about their concerns for now. However, it wasn't as easy as that for the analytical mind of Maka Albarn to just let go of certain perplexing questions.

What is the deal with eighteen years ago? And did Mac and Ragnarok really meet before? And if so, who was that other person with him back then? Maka thought hopefully all of these questions and more will be answered tomorrow in class, and things will start to make sense. Hopefully.

 **Hmm, did I write this one day and that's why it's out right after the last chapter? No, honestly I've been working on this chapter for awhile now, and I've just finished adjusting the mistakes, the next chapter though... may take awhile. Hope you enjoy! :D**


	7. Chp 6 (Hit me with everything you got)

Chapter 6

The students (aside from Black Star, who was noticeably excited) stared at Mac in bewilderment after what he just said.

"I...I'm sorry, Professor Mac?" inquired Tsubaki .

Mac repeats himself... "I want you nine to attack me with everything you got. And whatever you do. DO, NOT hold back." Emphasizing the 'do not' part.

'Well there goes that idea that he'll ease them into their lessons', thought Maka.

Liz spoke up quickly to clear up something in her mind, "Uh, Professor? We're not all going to attack you at once, are we?"

"Yep."

The quick, flat response from their new Professor leaves the group dumbfounded.

"I'm assessing your fighting skills and cooperation in battle. And please, you don't need to call me Professor. Mac's fine."

At this very moment, Black Star's eagerness to fight was starting to get the better of him.

"Alright, lets do it! I will avenge myself for yesterday, and I shall use your defeat as a stepping stone to surpass God! HIYAAAAAAH!"

With that, Black Star rushes towards him, leaps into the air, and extends his right fist to collide with Mac's face.

In a split second however, Mac raised his left arm to block the ninja's attack, which was followed by Mac throwing him into a wall, bouncing off it, only to land right on the hard ground, face first.

Tsubaki rushes to his side, helping him back up.

"As much as I compliment your eagerness to get started, I must remind you however that I'm assessing your cooperation in a battle too." sighed Mac. "Alright then, Weapons and Meisters. Get ready to..."

"HOLD IT!" A familiar voice angrily interrupted, from the steps leading up to the entrance of the DWMA (Which were right behind Mac, presently).

Mac looks down, and sighs once again in annoyance. He turns to be face to face with his old friend. "Hi Spirit. What brings you here... interrupting my lesson?"

"I warned you to not push Maka too hard, Mac. Clearly, I need to beat that into you so you won't forget!" The furious Spirit replied, inching closer and closer to Mac, whilst cracking his knuckles.

Maka makes a slightly irritated expression at her father's over-protectiveness. While admittedly over the last few years, their father/daughter relationship has improved... somewhat (with Maka tolerating most of Spirit's advances to spend more time with her), but she still feels very annoyed at Spirit whenever he still acts this way. She hoped that after the incident when she had to knock some sense into her father for giving one of his various 'don't hurt my daughter warnings' to Crona, that he'd learn that Maka can look after herself. However, that does not seem to be the case.

But just before Spirit could land a right hook onto Mac's face...

"Now Spirit lets not be hasty." Spoke an emotionless voice, emanating from the entrance of the DWMA.

All those present, turn to behold Professor Stein, sitting on his rolling chair, in his usual posture. Kind've strange no one heard or noticed him there before.

Spirit winces a bit. "What now Stein? Can't you see I'm busy?"

Stein propels his chair forwards, and stops when he's right next to the other two men. "I've already seen you two butt heads before, but the outcome is always the same." He states plainly.

The students take notice of Spirit looking increasingly more annoyed when Stein brought that up.

Stein lifts an already lit cigarette to his mouth, inhales, and then exhales the smoke before continuing. "So, while I'll admit in having an academic interest in seeing how long the students will last for, more so than this pointless argument's predicable outcome..."

The students react to this by tilting their heads, processing the part when Stein mentioned his interest in 'how long they would last for'; that sounded very concerning to them.

"...I think though that it's important for Mac to train them in whatever he deems necessary to combat... you-know-who." Finished Stein.

Spirit quickly counters his statement. "Yeah, I get that part. But it's only the second day of the first semester! Don't you think its a bit too soon for something like this?"

"Spirit? Please hear me out." Interjected the bandana wearing sword Meister. Spirit gives an inquisitive look towards him. "I didn't forget my promise to you, that's why I'm not gonna fight back."

A collective silence falls upon the individuals standing outside of DWMA entrance. That is until Black Star's voice broke that silence, much like how a sledgehammer can break a window.

"'Not fight back my foot'! You threw me into a wall!"

"After you tried to hit me, before everyone was ready. Just because I'm not fighting back doesn't mean I can't defend myself." Corrected Mac, looking over to Spirit, awaiting his approval.

Spirit engages in a mental debate with himself. After a short while, Spirit breathes in deeply through his nose, and then out from his mouth, he has seemed to have reached a consensus. "Fine. Go ahead Mac, but I'll be watching from the sidelines, making sure you live up to your word. And just to be sure, give me your weapon." Spirit points to the sheathed katana located at Mac's left side.

Mac calmly unstraps his sword from his side, and hands to Spirit, who promptly snatches it from Mac's hand.

But before Spirit could join Stein (who has rolled himself to the opposite side of the platform, to observe the students' training session in a safe location), Spirit approaches his daughter, to give her some words of encouragement. Maka was not looking forward to this.

"It's okay now Maka, I cleared everything up with Mac, you'll be perfectly safe...

"Papa..." Interrupted Maka, pausing to think what to say next. "...now's not the time. Please stop embarrassing me."

Spirit, caught off-guard by Maka's demand, stutters out a response. "O...o...okay, s...sure. I'll wait over there with Stein."

And off Spirit went, head lowered, pondering what he did that annoyed Maka so much.

At this sight, Mac was feeling very sorry for Spirit; his heart's in the right place, he just has an unfortunate habit of being overly protective of those he's close to, and not understanding that he should probably learn to give them some proverbial breathing space, from time to time.

"So are we gonna do this thing or not?" asked Soul.

Mac smiled. "Ah yes, lets get rolling. Everyone, to your starting positions."

Tsubaki and Black Star (who has recovered) move behind Mac; while Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty stand facing Mac's right; Crona moves to face Mac's left side; and Soul and Maka remained in front of their professor.

Soul held Maka's hand, and transformed into his weapon form; Liz and Patty turned into handguns for their Meister, Kid to wield; Tsubaki changed into her ninja blade form for Black Star; and Ragnarok... did not appear at all for Crona. In fact, he's been pretty inactive since they met up with Mac this morning.

Mac noticed this. "Has Ragnarok got cold feet?"

"I...I think so." replied the shy swordsman.

"Well, it looks like I need to have another private conversation with him."

However, before Mac could even approach Crona, Ragnarok erupted from Crona's back. Quickly speaking up, in a panicked tone. "No need sir! I'm here and ready!"

It was obvious that the little Demon sword was still acting cautious towards Mac, ever since what happened yesterday.

Maka didn't forget what Ragnarok told her and Crona later that night, of who he thought Mac might be, and of how they met in the first place. She made a mental note to herself to discover the validity of Ragnarok's claims later.

"Glad you could show up, Ragnarok." Spoke Mac to the Demon sword. "Now, you understand that I want you to go all out in attacking me, right?"

Ragnarok replied very quickly. "Yes sir! The Pipsque...I mean Crona and I will do our best." And with that Ragnarok changed his shape to his sword form, of which Crona held with his right hand, with the blade pointing downwards.

Soul, while in weapon form, felt the need to comment on what he just beheld to Maka. "Gotta hand it to Mac, he did the impossible." Maka looked down at her weapon partner with an inquisitive expression.

Soul continued. "He tamed that annoying Demon sword."

But before Maka could react to Soul's statement, Mac spoke up again.

"I think we stalled long enough, and everyone looks ready to go."

The Meisters got into their own individual battle stances in preparation.

Mac spoke again "On your marks..."

Kid aimed Patty and Liz directly at Mac, but he knew that the other three will just rush in and get caught in the firing line, so he plans on switching his aim at Mac's legs when that happens.

"...Get set..."

Black Star's anticipation to finally show what he's made of, was starting to get the better of him again. 'Just get on with it!' He thought to himself, he wanted to pay Mac back for knocking him into that wall earlier.

"...Go!"

And like that, the sparring lesson begins.

Just as Kid predicted, the other three Meisters charged straight into Mac. Maka had swung Soul's scythe form to strike at the left side of his head; Crona was coming in for a lunging attack towards the left side of Mac's hip; while Black Star was coming in from behind, raising the ninja blade above his head to bring down upon the professor; and Kid remained still, he had Liz and Patty aimed at the trench coat man's legs, ready to fire whenever he moves.

As quick as a flash however, Mac narrowly avoided the scythe's blade, turned around to dodge Crona's attack, only to stop Black Star by catching his raised arm before he could slice him in two.

Just then, Kid began firing upon Mac, carefully so he doesn't hit his friends.

But much to his surprise, Mac released Black Star, pushed him, Maka, and Crona out of the way, and then ran towards Kid, while dodging EVERY shot he made at him. As soon as he was just a few inches away, Kid reacted quickly by swinging his right leg to kick Mac, only for it to be grasped by his new teacher's left hand.

'How did he move so fast?' thought Kid trying to free himself of Mac's grip. When he wouldn't let go, Kid began shooting at him again; the good news was he let go of his leg, the bad news, once again, he avoided the bullets.

The others weren't finished just yet though, all three of the Meisters rushed towards Mac, swinging their weapon partners at him, desperate to eventually hit him; but alas, Mac somehow kept dodging. It was almost as if Mac could tell what they were about to do next.

Kid couldn't get a clear shot at him, the bandana wearing professor kept dodging, ducking, and leaping from every attack made at him, and from his constant, cheerful, calm expression alone, it was clear he was enjoying this.

When he finally stopped avoiding his student's various attempts to hit him, he raised his two arms in front of his chest to make a letter T shape, and proclaimed aloud "Time-out!"

Kid and the rest of the Meisters ceased their barrage of attacks, lowered their weapons, and listened to what the man had to say.

"Okie dokie, I think we're all warmed up about now, so it's high time you guys began resonating with each other, and get serious if you want to win."

The participating students were caught somewhat off-guard by that statement, they knew Mac wanted them to fight all out, and they probably would've decided to do so later on in the fight, if it was needed; but it appears Mac really want's to see what they're made of.

Each Meister looks to one another, and then nod in agreement to perform a Team Resonance.

Their souls reached out to each other, there was a brief pause, but suddenly off they went, attacking Mac.

They were much faster and more coordinated than what they were not a minute ago. Mac was still capable to dodge many of their strikes. However, he only accomplished that by focusing as hard as he can to defend himself. It was not easy. They never stopped attacking, thus giving him no time to take a break.

And then he was hit.

A right-hook from Black Star, straight into his cheek. The Ninja looked very proud at the fact that he finally got at least one hit on him. As Mac staggered slightly back from the punch, Kid saw his chance, and caught the unaware professor with a round-house kick to his back, which was then followed by another to his chest. Mac was knocked backwards.

From that point onwards, the group rushed into him again, Mac would block and dodge as much as he could, but punches, kicks, and slices to his coat were still being landed on him.

Mac was at a clear disadvantage now. 'Yeah, it's about time to stop messing around.' he thought. And with a confidant smile, he cleared himself from the groups attacks, and once again visually conveyed for a time out. The group of students stop, to see where he was going with this.

He remained silent for about five seconds with his eyes closed, then he spoke. "Alright then kids, you're doing very well so far. But lets see if you can attack me now."

Maka and the others stare at him with confusion in their eyes. "Kid? He has to be bluffing right?" Asked Liz, whilst still in her weapon form. Kid didn't give an answer, instead he began firing upon Mac.

Mac didn't try to dodge them this time, instead he stood still, his eyes flashed bright blue, his hand reached outwards towards the bullets, and then it moved around in a blur. When kid stopped, so did Mac. He opened his now clenched fist, only for the pink aura bullets that kid fired on him to fall harmlessly on the ground. The students stood in shock and awe. Once again, this sparring match has been tipped in Mac's favour.

Fifteen Minutes Later

Mac was standing victorious, the students were exhausted; he's a lot faster than what he was previously. The Students hardly had any fight in them left, but nevertheless, they kept going.

Kid pulled out of the futile fight, to prepare for an attack that could potentially find it's mark on Mac, just as long as he's distracted.

"Liz. Patty." Whispered the young son of death to his two Silver Beretta M9 Pistol Weapon partners. "Charge the Death Cannons."

"You got it, Kid." Replied the Thompson Sisters in unison, transforming into the previously mentioned Death Cannons.

10% charged.

Kid stood patiently, watching the fight in front of him. He had already relayed his plan of blasting Mac with 100% power from both of his Death Cannons to the others, their role is to keep him busy until it's ready.

35% charged.

'Mac's certainly fast, but he can't outrun a beam of light.' Reassured Kid to himself.

67% charged.

'The others can't keep this up much longer. When will those cannons be ready?'

92% charged.

Almost done. Seeing as they're still linked in a Chain Resonance, Kid transmits an instruction to be ready to dodge via his Soul Wavelength.

100% charged.

'It's time!' Kid aims both Weapons at Mac's back, the crackles of energy surround the cannons, Maka and the others see this transpiring; Maka, Soul, Tsubaki and Black Star jump to the far left, while Crona and Ragnarok jump to the far right. This way, even if Mac somehow dodges the blast he will run into either one of the students' surprise attack.

Both cannons unleash a large beam upon Mac, who despite noticing the incoming attack, remains perfectly still, not bothering to even try to run away from it. The light of the blast engulfs him.

Dust flew into the air, spreading all around those who witnessed and took part in the sparring session. All present couldn't see much for a few seconds, but as the dust cleared, everyone could make-out each other.

Everyone seemed to be accounted for, except for Mac. He seemingly just vanished, but not without leaving a crater where he once stood.

Before anyone could ask the obvious question, they all notice something floating down onto the ground. It wasn't Mac, but rather his brown, leather trench coat; torn and burned, definitely not wearable any more.

A hush fell upon the students. And for some, it was swiftly replaced by panic.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Screamed Liz and Patty in horror of their apparent act of manslaughter.

Soul was next. "Kid! We're not supposed to kill him!"

Kid followed suit. "W...w...w...wait a minute, he may not be dead..."

"'Vaporised' is the word I would use!" Retorted Soul, who like all the other Weapons, have switched back into their human forms; well except Ragnarok, who's a demon.

The area was definitely a very pitiful sight to behold. Liz and Patty were crying out loud about how they'll be 'thrown into the dungeon' for this; Crona, hearing this, sat down with his hands cradling his head, whilst he succumbs to his panicked thoughts of being stuck in those horrible dungeons again; Tsubaki tried to keep him calm, but she had some similar fears as well; Kid, Black Star, and Soul engaged into a frenzied conversation on what they could do to fix this situation, it was as calm as you would expect; and Maka was having a brief argument with a very happy Ragnarok about how he shouldn't be celebrating their new teacher's apparent demise.

However, Maka soon realised something strange. Spirit and Stein were perfectly calm about what happened, heck they didn't even flinch when the blast hit Mac. Weren't they all friends?

At that moment, both men gestured with their thumbs for Maka to look at the DWMA building, she does this, only to see something very unexpected. Maka nudged Soul to look too, then he began motioning to the rest of the group to look at the top of one of the spikes protruding from the building; they each had a look of absolute shock as they could all see, as clear as day, Professor Mac Tire, completely alive, looking down on them with a cheery smile on his face.

"Oh no, don't mind me. Please continue on how much you'll miss me." He said as he leapt from the protruding spike, onto the ground, next to them.

Naturally, the collective question that echoed in the students' minds were, 'How the hell did you survive?!' Mac anticipated they would say something like that, so he explained.

"It was a clever strategy, distracting me whilst secretly charging an attack to catch me off-guard. Your mistake however, was not realising that I could sense such a massive build up of your Soul Wavelength, Kid. As to how I avoided such a devastating attack? Well, when I release enough restrictions on my Soul Wavelength, I can warp time and space around me. In short, I teleported."

Not the answer they expected to hear, but it was the answer they got.

Soul thought about his answer, then he responded with a good point. "If that's true, why did your coat get left behind?"

"Ah, y'see, I felt like screwing with you guys, so I left it behind just to see your reactions."

The students, stare at him; their once looks of shock has now changed into looks of sheer annoyance.

"What?" Asked Mac. "Oh don't worry, heheheheh. That coat was worn out anyway."

As he finishes his 'witty' comment, Kid, Liz, Soul, Maka, and Black Star lept on and started battering Mac in anger, thus physically displaying how little they thought of his joke. From the perspective of those who didn't dog-pile onto Mac, the sight was actually kinda comical.

Mac accepted his punishment, and then tried to lighten the mood when they stopped.

"Okay. Probably deserved that. But lets ease up now. You all did great! You're a lot more experienced than I expected. This makes my job easier. Heck, even as how you guys are now, you can give these jokers a run for their money." Mac says this while pointing to the two 'jokers', Spirit and Stein.

So yeah, he pulls a cruel joke on them, but they got to admit, hearing how he's praising them made it feel worth it.

"With that all said and done, I think it's time for a break. And honestly after how much fun that was, I think I owe you guys some more answers any questions you guys may have, but only one question per person, otherwise we'll be here all day."

Normally this would be a strange thing any average person would say to anyone, but in this case, it makes sense, seeing as how many questions this strange man has inspired in the minds of the DWMA students before him, in only two days.

"So, who has any questions about... well, anything? asked Mac "Um, ah yes, what do you want to know?"

 ***Whew* Told you guys this one would take awhile, didn't I? During the middle of typing this out, I kept on changing events here and there in the chapter, expanding upon certain, condensing scenes, and cutting out scenes that were meant to happen in this chapter; Initially I was going to add in Mac answering the gang's questions, but due to how long this chapter already is, I've decided to put that in the next one. I hope this was worth waiting for. :)**


	8. Chp 7 (So, What's on Your Mind?)

**Chapter 7**

Everyone turns to face Patty; who's arm was extended upwards. She looks back at everyone with a determined expression on her face. She opens her mouth...

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

Kid's eye twitched. 'Of all the questions, from everyone here to start with, Mac just HAD to pick that one', thought the slightly agitated Meister.

"Oh. Yeah, sure. Go ahead." Answered Professor Mac.

And off Patty went.

Mac returned his gaze to the other present students. "Anyone else got a question?"

Kid wasn't going to wait till everyone else had their go first; if he can only ask one question, then he was going to get the important one out of the way first.

"Ah, Kid. What's your question?"

Kid responded directly. "What exactly was the Lucifer Incident?"

First there was silence, then Mac smiled, he expected one of them to ask him that.

"Wait. You didn't tell them at least that much yet?" Questioned Spirit.

"Well, I thought it would be best to break the story up a bit, for them to grasp it all."

Before either Spirit or Stein could voice their opinion on his reasoning, Mac speaks up just in time. "And I've already discussed this matter with Lord Death; he agrees with me. So no spoilers from either of you, please."

Spirit, gives Mac a look, which can only be described as: he's not totally in agreement with Mac, but is going to reluctantly play along anyway. Stein, however, just sat there, smoking away, without a care.

Mac, reached into his right pocket, to pull out a basic black wallet. Soul and Stein were the closest to it; both saw that when Mac reached into one of its pouches, he almost pulls out what appeared to be a photo, it was of a smiling MacTire, with someone next to him; it was hard to tell who it was, seeing as Mac's hand was in the way.

Mac's expression visibly saddens for a split second, before he slides that particular photo back, and pulls out another, for him to present to the students in front of him; this one consisted of a group of young people, lined up together. Like a class photograph.

When Stein and Spirit looked at it, they both smiled, indicating that they knew exactly what it was.

Mac began to speak again. "If you guys want to know the basic story of the Lucifer Incident, then, in my opinion, you gotta know who were the guys and gals involved."

The Meisters and their Weapon partners, scanned the black and white photograph.

Black Star's eyes widen after a few seconds of staring into the photo. "Hey guys look!" Everyone's gaze falls upon the young woman in the center of the photo, whom Black Star points to.

This woman appeared roughly around eighteen years of age, she looked to be about average height, she was wearing a dark colored jacket over a simple white blouse, and wore jeans, her hair was a light color, with two pigtails on both sides of her head, and the way she smiled was a pleasant sight. She looked very beautiful, and not to mention, familiar.

"Maka! How old are you really, if you're also in this photo?!"

Maka's eyes twitched and muscles tensed in irritation at the moment when Black Star finished his question, while the present members of the EAT class just face-palmed, Stein began snickering to himself, and Spirit, out of frustration, gives Black Star a knock at the back of his head.

"Ow! The hell is that fo…?"

Spirit interrupted him. "That's not Maka, ya bonehead!"

"Well, who is it then?"

Maka spoke up, having resisted the urge to deliver one of her famous Maka Chops, down upon Black Star's head. "It's my mother."

On one hand, Black Star should've thought about it a bit more before asking such a silly question. On the other hand, the resemblance between Maka, and the picture of her mother in her younger years, was quite striking.

"Yeah, Kami lead our team against the invading Demons at the time." Said Stein, regaining his composure.

"Her name was Kami?" Asked Tsubaki.

"No, that was her nickname at the DWMA back then, we got so used to calling her that, it just stuck." Replied Stein.

"How did she get it?" Tsubaki further asked.

"The reason varies from person to person, some say she was called that because her combat skill and powers could rival celestial beings, other sources say it was due to her god-like beauty, while some theorize that it was because her anger was like the wrath of god. But the most popular reason is, it's all of the above."

Maka turns to Stein questioningly. "And you were all in the same team?"

Spirit decided to answer that one. "That's right. Without her, I couldn't imagine how things would've turned out for us, and for the other members of the Wolf Pride."

Despite being a brief answer, Maka could hear a sense of fondness Spirit still has for his ex-wife, through how he spoke of her. Maka doesn't scoff at this, nor does she doubt Spirit's feelings; Maka may never fully forgive him, nor be completely rid of her feelings of disappointment with him, but she does love both him and her mother all the same. And for a moment there, she could feel that bond that connects them as a family again, due to their mutual respect for Maka's mother.

But, she then snaps back into the present moment and focuses upon the conversation at-hand, when Liz asked…

"The Wolf Pride?"

"Uh, yeah. It was my idea to name the team that, since we couldn't decide between Wolf Pack and Lion Pride, I made the suggestion to combine the two." Laughed Mac.

Whilst giving this answer to the group of young Meisters and Weapons in front of him, he motions his right arm behind his head, and starts rubbing the back of it with his hand; there was no real reason for it, it was just instinctual for him to do so, when he sometimes gives his reasoning about something.

Soul points at the photo, in a calm manner. "So, aside from you guys, and Lord Death in the background, who else is in this photo?"

Mac cheerfully answers. "Well, let's start with the ones you know first. We've already spotted your mother Maka, right in the middle, and I'm sure everyone recognized Lord Death in the back here. Next we have Spirit on Kami's right, Stein next to him, and there's Marie beside him, and there's Azusa (looking as stern as usual), and Mira and Sid joining the gang too, despite being significantly younger than the rest of us." Mac points to all of their locations on the picture, as he identifies each person.

"Where are you?" Asked Soul.

"Right there, on Kami's left."

From what the students could see, when Mac was younger, he didn't wear the black bandana across his forehead like he does in present day, and he wore what looked to be a biker jacket instead of a trench coat. His hair was also pretty different to how it is now, firstly it appeared to be slightly shorter, apart from his fringe which was reaching the top of his eyes and one strand of hair in the middle was reaching down to the bridge of his nose, the sides were partially covering the ears, and two long strands were pointing downwards against his cheeks.

The one similarity between then and now is that his hair at the back was still longish, messy looking, and it curling upwards; everything else is different, the long strands of hair have been pushed backwards behind his ears and kept there thanks to his bandana, and his fringe isn't resting on his forehead and reaching down to his eyes, it may just still be just as long as it was back then, perhaps longer, it's just probably the way Mac ruffles it to make it pointed and untidy, thus keeping it from obscuring his vision, that makes it hard to tell.

All those that were left were the individuals the students weren't familiar with.

On the far left were two young men, dressed like cowboys; the tallest one looked like the strong and silent type you'd see in some westerns, he appeared to be one of the tallest people there (about: 6'2), he wore a light colored poncho (which concealed what clothes he wore under it very well), he held his possibly tan colored hat against his chest, he had very bushy eyebrows, and short hair (which could possibly be brown in color); had he not been smiling by just a noticeable bit, he would look quite intimidating.

The other cowboy, on his right, was shorter (about: 5'10), he wore a darker hat on his head, had a leather jacket instead of a poncho, wore a scarf of some sort around his neck, he looked more relaxed than his friend, and it looked like he was winking at the camera whilst pointing at it with his left hand, like a gun.

Mac states their names. "This fella, over here is Clint Van Cleef, and on his right, is his Meister, Johnny Wallace. These guys were wandering bounty hunters before they joined our gang; they recognized the threat the Demons were for business, so they decided to help out, and long story short, we became fast friends."

Stein raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought I remembered Spirit always picking fights with Johnny."

"Hey! It was his own fault! He was putting the moves on Kami all the time!" Defended the Death Scythe.

"Let it go, Spirit." Sighed Mac.

"No! I won't 'let it go', Mac! That guy was an asshole!"

"Well, I do remember many times you two would become inseparable… after a friendly drinking competition."

"Of which he would rig, Mac! Don't forget that part!"

"I told you before, there was no way he could've cheated. We watched him." Reassured Stein.

"HE FOUND A WAY!"

Stein sighs. "Whatever."

Not wishing to have the conversation linger on one person, Mac continued onwards.

His finger then landed on a man (about: 6'0) wearing a dark colored garb from head to toe, and it appeared that he had a small sword strapped to his back. He kinda looked like a ninja.

"The guy dressed as a ninja there is Hayato Nori. He was not a part of this branch of the DWMA, but rather of the Japanese branch. Y'see, in some groups like ours, students were mixed with some unfamiliar faces, whether they were associated with the DWMA prior to the Incident or not, to balance out teams."

Spirit, spoke up again. "I remember our time spent with Hayato pretty well. Man, that guy took his job and training pretty seriously; 'cause of that he could be a bit of a buzz kill at times."

"You can say that again; I remember he used to hit me on the head with a bamboo stick whenever he caught me in the middle of an 'experiment'." Sighed Stein.

Some of the students could give a VERY good guess at what kind of experiments this Hayato caught Stein doing at the time.

"Still though, he did teach me martial arts to help suppress my… surgical urges. And helped me through my rehabilitation." Stein says as he stares off into nothingness, casting his mind back to those forgotten times.

MacTire continued hovering his finger over the picture till it landed on another person.

"And this little girl next to Marie, is Sanya."

This girl looked to be about ten years of age at the least, and if that was correct, then she would be about the average height for a girl of her age, she concealed herself under a dark robe, with the hood up, strands of her hair poked out from under the hood at both sides of her face to reach down to her neck, and looked straight at the camera with an emotionless expression on her face.

"Even back then, witches weren't treated all that well by the DWMA; Sanya was an exception due to her wisdom, power, and her loyalty to the Academy." Mac lets out a fond chuckle before continuing. "She used to spend a lot of time with Marie in those days, before she went off exploring the world. And in that time, she wrote those textbooks I gave you guys."

Kid took all this information in; despite the fact that his question hasn't been answered yet, this information did help paint a picture of who this Lucifer Incident affected.

Soul on the other hand, had a feeling that this whole subject was going to go way over his head. He already had a lot of stuff to remember as it is; ever since he became a full-fledged Death Scythe, he's been forced by Lord Death, to memorize where each DWMA branch is in the world, who runs them, and other stuff he would label as: 'crap'. However, it was thanks to all that research that he recognized one of the people in the picture.

"Hey, Mac? This could count as my one question for you. Isn't that guy there, Cú Chulainn?"

"Oh? That's right Soul, I'm kinda surprised you knew that." Laughed Mac.

"Well, as a Death Scythe, I gotta learn a lot of crap, including who the previous Death Scythes were. Well, at least that information came to some use after all."

The man in question, was also standing at the back with Lord Death, he was quite tall (about: 6'0), but due to the number of people in front of him, it was hard to make out his clothes. What could be noticed was his long wavy hair which was reaching down to his neck, to the sides of his cheeks, and were nearly covering his eyes. He also wore a black bandanna across his forehead.

Kid entered the conversation. "Cú Chulainn? Yes, I do remember father mentioning him from time to time. So, he was in the war, too?"

"There was no Death Scythe better for the job." Proclaimed Stein. "He was our teacher, his expertise of the battlefield, and of simple skirmishes was unparalleled. Whenever we were in over our heads or greatly outnumbered, he would swoop in out of nowhere, grin, and in an instant, he would've taken care of everything, singlehandedly."

Spirit reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette. "And take it from me, he was one tough act to follow as Lord Death's Death Scythe."

Soul continued the conversation by adding… "Some say that he was once a renowned warrior, who's over hundreds of years old, and others say he could summon his own weapon form for him to wield himself. Any of that true, Mac?"

All present, including Spirit and Stein look to Mac once again, eagerly awaiting his response.

Mac was silent at first, he then grinned, and said… "Who knows? Stranger things have happened."

Mac motions to put the picture away, but stops when Liz points out something.

"Wait a sec, you forgot to mention that guy."

Mac didn't need to look at who she was pointing to.

"Ah… yes… that's um…" Mac pauses. "That's Jack. He… can be talked about later."

The EAT students were taken aback by this answer. Mac was quite happy to talk about the others in the picture, before now.

This man, Jack, was standing on Mac's left in the photo, they were both the same height, he wore a white featureless mask which concealed his entire face, even his eyes were covered (perhaps there were lenses which allowed him to see through, but others can't see in), there looked be a crack running along the bottom half of the mask reaching from ear to ear (maybe it was for pulling off whenever he needed to eat whilst still wishing to hide his face), his hair reached to the nape of his neck and it was very untidy looking but still somewhat 'elegant', his clothes consisted of a white shirt, a slim tie, formal trousers, and formal shoes. He looked odd, but also like a gentleman.

Mac finally returns the picture to his wallet. Clearly not wishing to elaborate on who this person was. Mac's eyes up to now were bright, and full of cheeriness, but now for this brief moment, they darkened, and didn't look as happy as they were previously. They slowly began to brighten up as he explained to the members of the EAT class in front of him a simplified version of what this Lucifer Incident was.

"Now to avoid beating around the bush, the Lucifer Incident was a period of time when a creature from a long, forgotten race awoke from his many, many centuries of slumber, maybe longer. But the point is that he wakes up, and wants to escape, so he orders his Demons to hunt for some very particular souls, in order to free him; Grigori souls."

"Lord Death figured out what was going on pretty quickly, since it's not every day armies of Demons rear their ugly heads all at once." Added Spirit.

Mac continues. "Exactly. So, long story short, Lord Death wanted to keep this guy from being free, so he calls on all branches of the DWMA across the globe to deal with this threat. That's where we came in."

Stein dropped his cigarette on the ground, stomps it out, and picked off where Mac left off. "The conflict lasted for about a year. And sadly, he got enough Grigori souls to free himself." Stein takes a short pause to sigh. "It was nothing short of a miracle that we sealed him away again. This… 'Being', would've been on par with the Kishin himself."

From the tone of their voices, it would seem there's something more to this story. Just what does it have to do with now?

Mac spoke up again. "It was also around then, that Zarroth came into being."

'That name again. Zarroth. I can only guess he did something back then which affects our situation now. But what?' Thought Kid.

"Well, there's your summary guys. For more information, I recommend reading the books." Said Mac, with a smile, his eyes now fully returning to how bright they once were.

Black Star spoke up just then. "No offence, Prof, but before I can go kick this guy's butt, I gotta know what he looks like first."

It's not how the others would've put it, but in their minds, they agree with Black Star, surely Mac can at least give them a physical description of this guy, right?

"So, your question is: what does Zarroth look like?" Asked Mac.

"Yeah, I guess."

Mac thinks for a moment. "Well, the most distinguishing features about him that I can say would be his red Jack O'Lantern mask that he wears, and his scarlet eyes which glow behind it."

Silence came first, like the students were expecting Mac to continue… but he didn't.

Soul felt compelled to ask on the behalf of the others… "That's it? Come on! There must be something else you can mention about him?"

"Actually, I can't. When he told me about his interest in you all, he said if I ever give away the surprise of his appearance to you. He promised that he'd make you suffer unrelenting pain. If he ever found out that I told you guys, I have absolutely no doubts he would live up to his promise."

Soul and the rest of the gang's reactions were a mixture of concern and annoyance at this answer.

Spirit looked to them and said… "I know. It sucks. Believe me when I say, we want to tell you, to avoid…" Spirit looks back to Mac, and then over to Stein, before continuing. "To avoid any confusions."

'Confusions?' Maka thought. 'What does he mean?'

Mac decided to speak up again. "Look, I'm really sorry guys, I want to help you all understand better, before the time comes. You just have to trust me on this."

"No problem!" Proclaimed Black Star. "All I got to do is tear that cheap Halloween mask from his face whenever we meet!"

The three men smiled at that statement. They know it won't be THAT easy, but at least their morale hasn't been completely crushed.

"Glad to hear it." Said Mac. "Alright, that makes three, or rather four questions when counting Patty's, answered."

Liz looked over to the DWMA entrance, where her little sister ran off to head to the bathroom. 'What's taking her so long?' she thought.

"Anyone else got a question?" Asked MacTire.

Maka, quite suddenly out of the blue, remembered what Ragnarok told her and Crona last night. Now's her chance to clear up this little mystery.

"Excuse me Profes… I mean, Mac. But Rangnarok told me and Crona that he met you before."

Ragnarok, who up to now was sitting on top of Crona's head, calmly; reacted in a rather surprised manner that Maka would just bring up that private conversation to the guy, whom he was nervous about. Instinctively, Ragnarok reached over to cover Maka's mouth before she could say any more.

"SHUT UP, COW! I TOLD YOU THAT STORY IN CONFIDENCE!"

Maka made various angry, muffled statements at the little Demon covering her mouth, whilst simultaneously trying to pry the little guy's hand free from her mouth.

Spirit tried to help Maka. "LET GO OF MY DAUGHTER, YOU HELL-SPAWN! CRONA! CONTROL YOUR ASS OF A WEAPON PARTNER!"

"OW! HEY! PIPSQUEAK! STOP PULLING ME AND CONTROL YOUR COW OF A GIRLFRIEND'S FATHER!"

Crona, was desperately trying to keep calm and make Ragnarok let go, but there was no success from this.

Mac was unimpressed by this display. To make the little Demon sword aware of this, Mac loudly clears his throat.

Ragnarok, Maka, Spirit, and Crona, stop to look over to the sitting swordsman. Mac stared directly at Ragnarok, and slowly raised his left eyebrow before speaking.

"Ragnarok…" He says with an annoyed sigh. "Release Maka, and behave."

Ragnarok took only a second to obey this order, like his very life depended on it. Maka began rubbing her sleeve across her mouth, whilst giving Ragnarok, who sat nervously on Crona's head, a death glare.

"So, I presume you wish to know if that's true? Maka?"

Maka, was still momentarily distracted by her annoyance at the Demon Sword's previous actions, but she's pulled back to the subject at hand, when Mac askes of her question.

"Oh. Uh, yes! That's my question."

The ever seemingly joyful Mac, answers her question. "Well, in that case, yep, me and Ragnarok met before. During the Lucifer Incident. It was all a big misunderstanding at the time though. Right, Ragnarok?" He looks over to the said Demon.

"AH! Y…Y…Y…Y…YEAH! OF COURSE, IT WAS!" Ragnarok began to laugh nervously; clearly still in fear of what Mac was capable of doing to him.

"Good, we're all friends now, so there's no need to dwell on that moment. Anyone else got a question?"

Crona then remembers of a question he wished for more information on. "E…e…excuse me, Mac. Is it okay if I could ask one?"

"Go ahead. What'cha want to know?"

"W…well… it's about… what you said yesterday… when you said you had a private conversation with Ragnarok."

Mac believed he knew what Crona was going to ask. "Ah, you want to know what I exactly did to him yesterday?"

"Uh huh".

Mac moves his hands behind his back, to grasp at the long ends of his bandana, to tighten the knot.

"Y'know when your soul resonates with another's at a strong frequency, you can communicate through your wavelength?"

The EAT students in front of him all nod in unison.

"That's pretty much what I did. Except... since Ragnarok is a demon, and was resisting my soul, he got a few painful jolts as a result."

Crona's curiosity only grew larger. "Is that how you were able to wield him?"

Mac was a little surprised to hear Crona bring that up. Ragnarok told him and Maka quite a bit, apparently.

"He told that part too, huh? Yeah, that's how I was able to wield him against a few enemy Demons at the time. The downside of forcing the resonance, was that I couldn't use whatever abilities he had, so it made him pretty much as good as any other old sword."

He wouldn't dare openly show it right now, but Ragnarok was very offended at Mac's statement. Had it been anybody else, Ragnarok would've started pummeling their heads right about now, but he knows not to take that risk with MacTire.

"Now how about you, Ragnarok?"

The Demon Sword becomes alert when Mac made his query to him.

"Huh?"

"You are a part of the class, after all. Anything you want to ask?"

Ragnarok, thought quickly. What could he possibly ask him? What if he asks something that pisses him off? What happens if he can't think of anything? A thousand thoughts flooded Ragnarok's mind, and none of them were anything he could ask Mac about. Well, there was one thing he could ask; Ragnarok could easily guess the answer, but it's the only thing that's coming to mind that he could ask.

"Who was the other guy?" He asks, nervously.

Everyone, including Mac, stare at Ragnarok with a confused look.

Ragnarok realised he needed to be a bit clearer. "T…the other guy, who was with you, when you visited my cave? Years ago!"

Mac pondered what he meant for a few seconds. He soon understands.

"Oh yeah. I had help pacifying you back then, didn't I?"

Come to think of it, Crona and Maka do remember Ragnarok mentioning someone else with Mac, when they first met.

Mac continues. "To answer your question, that guy was none other than, the very reason why we're here today. Yep, you guessed it. That guy was Zarroth."

"Wh…? Zarroth?! You worked with him?" Enquired Liz Thompson.

Mac looks calmly to her. "Does this count as your question?"

Liz becomes somewhat irritated at his response. "Yeah, sure, whatever. But, did you work with Zarroth?"

"You could say that. He was also a member of the Wolf Pride, like the rest of us, can't say much more though, for reasons I've already explained." Answered Mac.

"Hey, I got a question for ya, Mac. Um... WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL THEM THAT MUCH YET?!" Complained an enraged Spirit Albarn.

Mac kept his cool demeanor, smiled and asked him… "Is that your…"

Spirit decided to hit Mac on the head for annoying him, the same way he hit Black Star not too long ago. Mac, however, grasps Spirit's fist before it could strike him.

"Well, at least they know now."

"WHERE YOU EVER GONNA TELL THEM ANYTHING IMPORTANT?!"

"That wasn't really all that important for them."

Before this one-sided argument could escalate any further, Stein spoke up.

"Alright, enough already you two. Yes, Zarroth was a member of the Wolf Pride, and he helped us during the Lucifer Incident, although it was for his own agenda, and then he turned on us when he got what he wanted."

When Stein finished explaining, Spirit had already begun to calm down, retracted his fist, and Mac turned to Tsubaki.

"Alright, that's eight down and one to go. Anything you want to ask, Tsubaki?"

Tsubaki spoke up. "You said before that Zarroth could control people with a single touch, and you said he wouldn't do that to us. But, what if he tries to?"

It was a good question. How does one face an opponent who can control anyone he wants?

"There is a way to become immune to his control." Said Mac

The students leaned in to listen closely.

"However, it's a slow process. While his Corruption Wavelength is close too instantaneous, my Purification Wavelength will require some time to adjust to your Souls. And don't worry, I've already began the process."

A curious Tsubaki further asks… "When did you use it?"

"During our fight." Replied Mac.

'That's strange. I didn't notice him doing that.' Maka thought.

Mac looks at each of his students' faces in surprise. "What? Really? None of you noticed?"

Their blank faces served as their response.

"It was from the point when I started gaining the upper hand again. You guys have been surrounded by my soul since then. Use your Soul Perception to see for yourself." Explained Mac.

Maka, Kid, and Crona all activated their Soul Perception, only to witness a very large soul surrounding them, from the DWMA entrance to where the stairs were located. How did they not notice this? Then again, they do remember feeling… something when they fought Mac; it was a warm, positive sensation, but they didn't focus that much on it.

From what they could tell of Mac's soul is that it's blue in colour, it has a bandana strapped on above its eyes, which acts as the soul's 'tail', the eyes themselves were white and were shaped like diagonal semi-circles, pointing downwards to the mouth, and the said mouth was smirking confidently.

"Well? What do you guys see?" Enquired Black Star, who's unable to use Soul Perception.

Death the Kid decided to answer his question. "We're inside of Mac's soul."

Kid then turns to Mac with a question. "Is this how you're using this wavelength you mentioned?"

"Correct, Kid. Whilst in my soul, I can reinforce yours against Zarroth's Corruption Wavelength. This was one of the reasons why I requested to be your Professor, so I can have plenty of time readying your souls for the inevitable conflict with him." Answered Mac.

"And you can't do this for everyone in Death City?" Asked Black Star.

"Well, for me to do that, my soul would have to be as large as Lord Death's, and it would need to be anchored to the city so it would have enough time to charge everyone's soul with my Purification Wavelength. Heck, it's tricky enough to do this with nine souls at the same time as it is."

Liz then had a realisation. "Nine? Wait! What about Patty? She hasn't been under your soul for as long as us!"

"Not to worry, we'll all have plenty of time together as a class in this semester alone to charge her soul." Reassured Mac.

"Actually, come to think of it, where the heck is she?" Asked Soul.

In a strange coincidence, Patty came bursting out of the front doors of the DWMA, with A LOT of paper animals being cradled in her arms.

"Hey everybody!" She exclaimed loudly. "Look at all of the cute animals I made!"

Just then, Ox came rushing out after her. "Hey!" He shouted, whilst trying to catch his breath. "You can't just rip paper from spare text books! Some of us need to use that paper for more important things."

"Well that's that mystery solved." Stein remarked to himself.

Spirit speaks to Ox. "Ox, go back to class. We'll take it from here."

"B… but, what about the paper…?"

"We'll take care of that later! Just go to class!"

Ox reluctantly retreated back inside the Death Meister Academy, to go to class, like he was instructed to do so.

"Did I miss much?" Asked Patty.

Mac answered her. "Oh, nothing to worry about."

"Oh goodie, 'cus I thought of a question for you."

'Asking to go to the bathroom wasn't a question?' Liz thought to herself.

Patty continued. "You have a strange accent, where are you from?"

MacTire made a fond giggle to himself before answering. "I get that a lot, even in my own country. I'm Irish, although, I admit my accent is a bit unique, some words I pronounce sound either American, while others are Irish. My guess is, I got this accent from watching too much Television."

'So, he's not trying to conceal his accent, it's just how he normally sounds from watching too much TV? A strange answer from a strange guy.' Soul thought to himself.

When Patty got back to being next to her sister, Mac announced something to all present.

"Well, I think that about wraps everything up for today. Now before we go, am I forgetting something?"

Mac scratched his head, thinking to himself. "A-ha! Now I remember!"

In an instant, Mac's form changes into a speeding, bright blue beam of light right in front of his students' collective sights, it zips past them and swiftly returns to the spot Mac transformed from, and he then reappears with his torn-up coat in his hands. This action was very surprising for the students to behold; so, this was how he managed to dodge Kid's Death Canons.

Mac puts on his shredded coat (the shoulder sections were still attached), and then something strange began to happen, the coat began to repair itself. If the students' looked closely, they could see that whilst the long coat was being regenerated, small crackles of azure blue electricity were 'dancing' around the areas which have been damaged, thus repairing it. When the electricity disappeared from sight, the coat was mended.

Mac examined the now newly restored trench coat, after a short while of inspecting it, he pulled a face, which could be described as, unsatisfied. His expression then changed, like he had a good idea. He turns to the still flabbergasted EAT students in front of him.

"Hey, I have an idea, would you guys like to take a trip when we next meet, on Monday?"

"A trip? Where are you taking them?" Asked a concerned Spirit.

"Oh just to Bill's place." Responded Mac.

Spirit seemed happy enough with that answer and visibly expresses his approval; he then gives Mac back his sheathed katana, of which he held onto till now.

"Who's Bill?" Asked Kid.

Spirit answers his question before Mac could. "He's an old friend. He lives a few miles out that way." Spirit indicates where with his right hand.

"Don't worry, I'll give you all maps to where exactly." Said Professor MacTire. "I'll say, we'll meet up there about… roughly around noon. Is that alright for you, Stein?"

"As long as it's for something important." Replied Stein.

"IMMEASURABLY important." Mac said, emphasising how immeasurable it was.

"Oh! So, this is where you're hiding." Spoke a pleasant voice, emanating from the stairs, leading up to the platform where the three Professors and the EAT students were located.

Everyone turns to behold the one-eyed, blonde haired Death Scythe, Marie Mjolnir, approaching them; holding the hand of a small, silver-gray haired boy, wearing gray coloured, patchwork clothes.

"Hello everyone." Marie says with a smile. "Seriously Mac, you've been back for this long, and you haven't visited to say hello at all."

"Hey, it's only been a day Marie. And I was gonna visit you and Vic later, before we all head out to Deathsteraunt tonight." Replied Mac.

"Well, at least you remembered about that." Marie then looks down to the young boy next to her, before saying… "Aren't you going to say hello, Victor?"

The stoic looking boy spoke up. "Hi Uncle Mac, hi Dad, hi everybody."

Everyone says hello back in their own unique way, all at once.

"Hi Victor."

"Oh… hello Victor."

"Oh great. It is the Screwhead's emotionless kid."

"Sup dude."

"Hi!"

"Hello."

"Hello there, Victor."

"What's up?"

"Why hello, Victor."

"Hey there, Vic!"

"Hey, how are you, Victor?"

"Hey Son."

Marie then remembers something. "Oh! That's right! I just remembered. Maka, Crona. You're both still up for watching Victor for us while we're out tonight, right?"

"Yeah, we can both still do it. Right?" Maka turns to face Crona, waiting for his response.

"Y…yeah, you can count on us." Said Crona.

"That's good." Marie lowers herself to speak to her Son. "Are you looking forward to spending time with Maka and 'Big Brother' Crona?"

The boy looks at his Mother, with still no visible expression. "Yes Mom. Are you looking forward to your night out?"

"Why yes I am. Thank you for asking. You're such a gentleman." Marie says in a cheerful voice.

Stein spins his chair to face his Wife and Son. "Is there something you needed, Marie?"

Marie stops fawning over their Son, to answer Stein. "Oh no, dear. I just came to say hi, and remind Mac and Spirit about dinner tonight. Actually, I should stop by and remind Azusa, Mira, and Sid too. Do you know where I can find them, Franken?"

Stein rolls himself over to his Wife and three-year-old Son. "I'll lead the way. See you tonight Spirit, Mac."

Victor and Marie waved goodbye, as they both followed Stein to where Azusa was located.

Mac waves back. "Alright, see ya then! Bye Vic!" He motions to leave back to his own apartment. "Catch you later Spirit. And see ya guys! Have a safe weekend! Head to my class first on Monday, to get the maps to where our next lesson will take place. Remember, we meet at Bill's place at Noon."

All present wave goodbye to Mac as he heads off. And not too long after, everyone else returned to their homes.

'Definitely a strange day, today.' Thought Maka. 'And why do I have the feeling that things will only get stranger as we spend more time with our new Professor?'


	9. Chp 8 (Night time in Death City)

**Chapter 8**

"You stand before the giant pillar. It's covered in various runes and sigils. You can actually feel the evil radiating from it; there's this sickly green aura that pulsates from this structure, silencing any and all animals within the heart of the forest."

Mac sits before his friends, dramatically describing a fictional setting to them.

In the indigo living room, the group of teachers sit around a table littered with papers, manuals, mugs, dice of various shapes, and small figurines on top of grid paper. All eyes are focused on the bandana wearing Professor.

"So, what's the plan, guys?" Mac asks, whilst taking a drink from his mug.

Stein speaks up. "I want to examine the runes."

Mac turns his head right to face Stein on the sofa. "Okay then. Make an investigation check."

Stein lifts a twenty-sided die from the table in front of him, and rolls it back onto the table. He leans forward to inspect it, and then the sheet of paper he has in his hands. He sits back upright to inform Mac the result. "Eighteen."

"Eighteen?" Mac pauses to think for a second. "It's hard for you to decipher what exactly these sigils and runes would mean. However, you do recognise some arcane and Elven symbols in different sections of the pillar."

Stein listens intently to Mac, same goes for Sid and Spirit who are sitting on the opposite side of the table; Marie and Nygus however, begin writing down what Mac says on their notebooks.

"These symbols represent time, space, shadow, necromancy, and corruption."

"Right. I'm gonna hit it with my Great Sword!" Proclaimed Spirit.

Stein and Nygus instinctually turn their heads right, to face Spirit and protest before he carries through with his action.

First Nygus. "Wait! Don't do that!"

Then Stein. "We don't know what will happen if we touch it!"

The others realise this too; they stare at the red-haired Death Scythe, in anticipation of his next move.

Spirit halts, thinking it over; Mac looks at him, grinning ominously, knowing full well what consequences this action will have. "What'cha gonna do, Darion?" Asked Mac, addressing Spirit as his character's name.

"…I'm gonna hit it." He responds.

Nygus flings her pencil onto the table in frustration, Stein takes his spectacles off, to rub his eyes, Marie looks to everyone in worry, and Sid flip through his notes in preparation of whatever the Game Master might through at them.

"Alrighty then." Said Mac. "Roll your d20 to see if you hit it."

Spirit lifts his twenty-sided die from the table in front of him, shaking it in his hand whilst whispering "C'mon baby, c'mon baby" to himself. He rolls the die back onto the table. He leans forward to investigate what number it landed on, then starts counting in his head; leaning back, he tells Mac "Fourteen?" Unsure if the roll was good enough.

Mac chuckles to himself, like how an evil mastermind would; the party members look at him with concern. "Well, despite the best efforts of Syallia and Vo'faar…" referring to Nygus and Stein's character names. "…Darion, unsheathes his Great Sword, swinging it in a horizontal motion, to cleave through the pillar. However, your sword doesn't scratch the construct, but causes it and your blade to loudly vibrate, and those very vibrations echo throughout the forest."

Mac pauses for dramatic effect. His friends look to him, expecting the worse.

"From beyond the reach of the light of your torches, in the darkness of the forest around you, a rustling sound is heard, getting closer and closer."

"I cast Light on the source of the sound!" Exclaimed Marie, in panic.

"Uh, just to clarify, the sounds are coming from the trees all around you." Mac explained.

"Oh, okay. Uh… so we're in a clearing in this forest, right?"

"Yep."

"Okay, and how far are the trees from our position?"

"Like about… roughly seventeen feet."

"Right. I'll use my Light spell at a higher level to expand it around us."

"Alrighty. How far is max range for it?"

Marie begins checking her notes. "Twenty feet radius."

"Swell. You do this, the blinding light shoots out of your hand, upwards, and illuminates the area around you up to twenty feet. From the edge of the light, you can make out figures hiding behind trees and bushes, watching you."

"Can I roll for perception?" Nygus and Sid ask in unintentional unison. All present chuckle softly at their timing; it would seem that asking stuff like that has become routine for some during these game nights.

"You guys can certainly try." Mac responds between chuckles.

The two roll their dice and give Mac their results. "Eight." "Thirteen?"

Mac takes these numbers into consideration. "Hmm, okay. Sid, with an eight, it's hard to make out with the light above you being that bright. Mira, you can kinda see a leg that somewhat looks bug-like, but it's difficult to tell what for certain you're dealing with."

The five party members share a look of worry, as Mac reaches over the little screen that obscures his notes and dice rolls from the players, for his drink. After slurping the last of it through a straw, he continues with the game.

"Eventually, multiple loud clicking sounds emit from all around. Suddenly, four medium sized, orangey armored, four-legged bugs charge right out from the trees and bushes to your location!" Mac starts off calm and ominous when describing the situation, but he quickly becomes more intense in his description.

"Oh shit!" Exclaimed Spirit, looking more worried than what he was when he attacked the pillar.

The Irish Dungeon Master looks to everyone, seeing the anticipation in their eyes. "Guys… let's take a quick break before we continue."

A collective groan escapes the players before him, but their smiles are ever present; they're enjoying themselves. A moment of realisation dawns on Sid as the others relax in their seats.

"Mac? You say these orange bugs have four legs?"

"Yep."

"And have long antennas and tails?"

"Mmmm hmmm."

The undead teacher flips through several pages with determination. He stops, analyses the page and asks… "Are these Rust Monsters?"

Hearing the name, all look to Mac for confirmation. With a devious grin, Mac nods.

"No! No! Not again!" Shouts a panicked Spirit Albarn, incurring Mac Tire to giggle.

"You evil bastard! You're trying to lower my AC again, aren't ya?"

Calming himself, Mac responds smugly. "Hey, you were the one who hit the pillar."

"Why didn't anyone try stop me?!"

"We did!" Retorted Nygus, slightly annoyed.

Mac lifts himself from his comfortable, dark blue chair. "Welp, too late now." He exclaims in his typical upbeat tone.

The doorbell rings, catching everyone within the apartment's attention.

"Back in a sec." Mac exits the room, walking to the front door.

Opening the blue door, Mac is greeted by 5'5 girl, with long blonde hair flowing out from under the black and red cap on her head, that curls as it reaches down to her shoulders. From just slightly below the cap's visor, her violet eyes sparkle with determination and enthusiasm. A wide smile plastered on her fair skin, greets Mac.

"Oh. Hello. Can I help you?" Asked Mac.

"Good evening, sir!" responded the young woman with a salute. "I got parcel for you! Just came in, sir!" The eager Mailwoman lifts the said parcel up from her black and red uniform to the curious Professor.

"Thank you. I didn't know the Death City Postal Services delivered this late."

As Mac accepts the package, the keen woman gives him an explanation. "Well we don't normally, sir, but I requested to deliver the mail tonight!" She says with another cheerful salute.

"You were that eager, huh?"

"You betcha! I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if someone was really eagerly expecting some important mail! Waiting up all night, worried their packages might never arrive on time! It's my duty to ease their worries! Except if it's bills." The Mailwoman's passionate speech turned into embarrassed chuckles, indicating to Mac she's probably knocked on many a door in the middle of the night, greeting people with just as many bills as packages.

"You're sure passionate about your work, Miss… Fleeter?" Said Mac, noticing her name tag on her uniform.

"Yes sir! China Fleeter, sir!" Responded China, adopting her saluting stance yet again.

After a few seconds of silence, China dropped the stance and lifted a clipboard and pen to Mac.

"Could you please sign here, sir?"

"Uh, sure." Mac takes the pen and writes his name on the page attached to the clipboard. China smiles, taking back the pen and clipboard from Mac to inspect it.

"Thank you very much, Prof. Mac Tire! I hope you enjoy your mail!" Raising her hand once more for a final salute, before walking to the stairs.

"I'm sure I will. Thank you, very much, and good night." Mac raises his right hand's index finger and middle finger, to give his own relaxed salute back at the young Mailwoman, before closing his apartment's door as he brings his parcel in with him.

As inspects the parcel, Mac hears Marie calling out to him.

"Is that Azusa, Mac?"

"Nah, it was a Mailwoman."

"This late?" Nygus says to herself.

"Yeah, a bit weird, I know, but I'm not complaining." Responded Mac, surprising Nygus at how good his hearing was.

The bandana wearing Professor slightly opens the package, just enough to see what's inside. After a minute or two of investigating the contents, a happy smile spreads across his face.

"Hey guys? We'll start back up in five, okay?"

"Sure thing, Mac. Doubt Azusa will make it tonight." Chimes Sid.

"That's a shame, guess she was too busy. Oh well, she can join in next time."

Mac takes the package to his bedroom with him closing the door, leaving his friends alone for the next few minutes.

The gang remain seated around the coffee table.

Spirit speaks up. "Typical! First game of Dungeons and Death in a year, and he's pitting us against Rust Monsters! I'm nearly convinced he's trying to kill us!" His tone is exaggeratedly annoyed.

"Beats being burned alive." Said Sid. "Actually, you see any smoke coming from Deathsteraunt out there?"

The undead teacher points to the window behind Stein and Marie, with the dark orange curtains covering it.

Stein, gets up to look behind the curtains, closing them and returning to his seat. "Nope. Guess they put it out."

Earlier in the night, the group of DWMA teachers planned to go out to Deathsteraunt, and maybe have a sesh. However, before they could arrive, the restaurant caught fire. With everywhere else booked up for the night, Mac made a suggestion to head back to his apartment to play some D&D like how they used to. That's currently what's happening now.

Marie turns to her husband on her left. "Good thing we didn't go there after all. Though, I hope no one was hurt." A look of concern was visible on the Death Scythe's face

"I'm sure no was harmed." Said the bandaged woman on her right.

"Yeah you're probably right." Marie responded to her friend, Mira Nygus, feeling a little better.

Spirit glances around the living room of Mac's apartment. "Man, Lord Death has some favouritism for Mac. My apartment isn't this nice." He says, with a hint aggravation in his voice.

Nygus speaks up. "Spirit, you know Mac payed for all this himself. Lord Death just maintains it for him while he's away."

"I don't know. Where the hell did he get the money to afford all of this?"

Mac's nonchalant voice is heard by his friends in the living room, from his closed bedroom. "Oh, from a bit of treasure hunting, bounty hunting, odd jobs, that sort of thing!"

Spirit is caught off-guard by Mac's very good hearing, much like how Nygus was earlier. "Jeez! I bet you can hear a pin drop from four floors down."

"Now that's just being unrealistic." Laughed Mac.

A moment of realisation dawns on Marie, she was meaning to ask Mac about something, and seeing how he can hear them from his room, she decides to speak her inquiry. "Ah! I almost forgot to ask, Mac. I know it's only your second day, but how's the EAT class treating you?"

"They're a swell bunch. I can see how Asura was defeated by them."

"And is Crona settling in well?" Marie further asked, much how a mother would about something concerning her child.

Mac answers. "Yeah, he's doing fine. A little shy, but I was shy around new people when I was his age. But yeah, he's a good kid."

Nygus enters the conversation. "Hard to believe he's Medusa's son."

"Maybe biologically…" Said Stein. "But she treated him more like a pet she would abuse."

"Medusa Gorgon…" Mac says quietly, behind his closed door. "Oh, that reminds me! Sid, Stein? Did you find those records from Fogtown I asked you to look for?"

"Uh, yeah. I left it with Stein." Replied Sid.

Stein glances up from his notes. "Julie Taylor… Those files, right?"

Sid looks over to Stein. "That's right."

"Yes, those files are back at home. If you want, Mac, you can collect it after this game."

"Sure thing!" Answered Mac.

Before returning to his notes, Stein feels a compulsion to ask a question. "Actually Mac, going back to what you said before, if you saw the EAT students' potential, I take it you understand what Zarroth wants from them?"

The question changes the mood from jovial to sombre, from the mere mention of that name. Everyone pauses, silently remembering their past with him, how he's hurt them, some in more ways than others. Even Mac takes a moment before answering.

"Yeah. I believe it's less about controlling them, and more like treating them as a new means of entertainment."

Mac's words carry a weight of dread that hang over the heads of the other teachers of the DWMA.

"Agh. There I go worrying everyone. Sorry guys." Said Mac, trying to help raise their spirits again.

"It's fine, Mac." Says Marie. "It's the reality of our situation and theirs."

Marie lets out a melancholic sigh. Worrying about her dear students, her family, her friends, and the whole of Death City.

Spirit speaks up. "Hey c'mon. We'll pull through. We always do. Zarroth can knock us down but we'll always get back up, right?"

His friends smile, admiring Spirit's resolve and simultaneously regaining their own.

"You got that right! That's the type of people we are after all!" Proclaimed Sid, raising his mug, the others doing the same, meeting his above the table, exclaiming "Cheers!"

"Great! Now let's get back to the game! Hey Mac! What's keeping ya?" Asked Spirit, back to his original mood again.

From within his own room, Mac has fully opened the parcel he received from the young Mail Lady, taking out the clothing inside and trying them on. After examining how it looks on himself, he tightens his bandana and ruffles his hair before calling out to the others.

"Coming now! Just trying something out."

Mac opens his door, walking out to be met with surprised looks from his friends. Mac now stands before them, wearing an untucked orange dress shirt with the top two buttons undone, navy trousers with his signature sheathed katana strapped to his left side, and a midnight blue trench coat with the collars raised and pointed.

The only familiar garments he wore previously are the black fingerless gloves, his grey shoes and his ever present long black bandana tied to his forehead.

Even Mac's hair style is a bit different, it appears more untidy and scruffy looking, covering his ears and reaching down to his neck. He has also allowed his fringe to hang over the front of his bandana, reaching down to the top of his eyebrows, with the exception of a single long hair-bang dropping down past his nose.

"Wow! That was in that package?" Asked Marie.

"Yeah. I'm surprised it got here so quickly, I only ordered it today."

A flabbergasted Spirit interjects. "Damn! Who the heck did you order it from?"

"Oh, an old woman who lives near Bill's place."

Stein inspects the clothing from his seating position. "Back to your old colour scheme for good?"

Mac smiles. "You betcha, the incognito look's time has passed. Mac Tire is back and here to stay." He says in a chipper tone, referring to his old outfit, of which he grew tired of.

During this time, Spirit begins thinking about what Mac had said earlier. "Near Bill's place? Wait… Was that why you wanted to go there? To have my Maka collect clothes you ordered?!"

Mac attempts to calm the angry Spirit. "Easy Spirit. I had other reasons to go there anyway."

"Like what?"

"The old woman does other stuff besides running a small eleven outta ten sewing business, she has some insight about Zarroth's dealing as of late." Mac walks towards his seat, taking his place as the Dungeon Master yet again. "Trust me guys, I know what I'm doing."

Spirit feels an urge to let out another outburst, but he restrains himself, nodding to Mac as a sign of trust. The blue clad swordsman grins. "I won't let you down."

Mac looks to his friends. "We ready to start again?"

Everyone seems ready enough. Mac takes in a breath before starting up his game again.

"Alright guys, Ready? Then roll for initiative."

"Here goes nothing."

"Don't let me down, die!"

"Franken, what time is it?"

"11.30pm"

"I hope Maka and Crona aren't having any trouble looking after Victor."

"I'm sure they're doing fine, Marie."

Meanwhile at Marie and Stein's home, Maka and Crona sit calmly together on a couch, with Victor sitting in-between the two of them. They normally babysit little Victor, whilst his Mother and Father are going out on dates or missions.

"ACHOO!"

"Bless you, Maka."

"Thank you, Victor." Maka replies, whilst rubbing her nose with a handkerchief. "I guess someone must've been talking about me." She whispers to herself.

Maka and Crona enjoy spending time with the ever-polite Victor; Ragnarok does not. He personally finds Victor to be creepy, seeing as it's a rarity for him to visibly display any form emotions. However, in despite of this trait of his, Victor enjoys his time spent playing games, listening to stories, and watching movies with Crona and Maka.

Up to now, the three of them played several fun little board games, of which Maka brought with her. Now however, they're watching a film called 'The Princess Bride'. Mac gave this to Victor as a present earlier in the night, just before he and Victor's parents went to Deathsteraunt together. Both Crona and Maka, only recently found out that a lot of films that Victor has watched together with them, have been presents from Mac, back when he used to visit Death City from time to time. It's good to know that Victor really likes these presents from Mac, the two Meisters thought.

They were each having a good time watching this film; but when the hero and his love interest reunite with each other in the middle of the film and start kissing, Victor, quite out of the blue, asks Crona and Maka a question.

"Maka? Big Brother Crona?"

"Yes, Victor?" Maka asked.

"Will you two ever have a baby together?"

Maka and Crona both choked on their own gasp in shock, at the moment when Victor asked his question.

"W…w…w…w…w…wh…wh…why d…d…d…do you ask?" Questioned the two dumbstruck Meisters, in surprising unison.

"Don't people who love each other have babies, after a little while?" Innocently replied the white haired boy.

Maka and Crona glance at each other, and then turn their gaze right back at Stein and Marie's son. Both Meisters thought the same thing: 'How do I explain it to him?' Maka, decided to make an attempt to clear up Victor's confusion.

"Um, you see Victor… me and Crona have only been dating for a few months now. We need to take our time while we're together; it's still too soon for us to… um, make babies." Despite her best efforts, the uncomfortable atmosphere only got even more uncomfortable, at least, that's how Maka felt after her explanation.

Victor was quick to counter however. "But, you lived together for years before you even started dating. If you wait any longer, you'll both be too old to have one. So, maybe it's better to be safe and make one now."

Victor's direct statement further shocked his two babysitters. Crona felt as if he was in the verge of having a heart attack, and Maka tried to think of something to say, to no avail. How does one clear up this kind of bewilderment, especially to a three-year-old, who doesn't know any better? By avoiding the question with a distraction.

"Oh! Hey, Victor! Look!" Announced the panicking Crona, as he pointed at the television screen.

Victor, turns his head to once again face the film, to behold the film's protagonist fighting a giant rat. The movie once again grasped the young boy's attention; Victor leaned forward, whilst still sitting on the couch, in order to get a better view of the fight. Right now, he was more curious about what could happen next in the movie, than his earlier query to Crona and Maka. The two babysitters let out a sigh of relief.

Maka leaned over slightly, to whisper into Crona's ear. "That was quick thinking. With any luck, he'll forget what he asked."

Crona nods in agreement. They then continue to watch the rest of the film with Victor, without any more awkward questions.

After a while, Crona felt Victor's head resting on his right arm. Looks like he's fallen asleep.

Maka looks upon this sight, with a smile. "Out like a light."

"Yeah." Replied Crona. "Should we turn the movie off?"

"No. Let it play to the end. Just in case he wakes up and wants to know what happened." Answered Maka, softly, to avoid disturbing Victor while he sleeps.

Crona agrees, and both he and Maka return their gazes to the television.

Despite how much they're both enjoying the movie; Maka finds herself looking back at Crona and the sleeping child, resting his head on him. Crona notices Maka doing this.

"Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, there's nothing wrong. I'm just thinking about… no. Never mind." Maka returns her gaze back to the TV screen.

"Please tell me. What were you thinking about?" Crona's curiosity began to grow.

She looks into Crona's eyes, piecing together what she could say. Then she speaks. "It's just… Victor's got me wondering, what it would be like to… raise a child."

Crona was clearly taken aback by what Maka said to him. He struggled to find the right words to say to that; in his internal panic, he eventually says… "W…w…w…whuh?!"

Maka attempts to calm him, whilst not disturbing Victor's slumber.

"I… I'm not saying we should try now or anything! At least, not now. I was just having a little fantasy, that's all!"

Ragnarok, suddenly emerges from Crona's back, pulling the lavender-haired boy close to whisper something.

"Looks like the cow's hit THAT point in her life. Dreaming about kids, and a family. If I were you, I'd get outta this relationship before she forces that hell on us. We'd be cleaning diapers, wiping asses, mowing lawns and doing taxes for the rest of our lives!"

Suddenly, a powerful Maka Chop strikes Ragnarok over the head, causing him to retreat back into his Meister's spine. 'Where does Ragnarok get off saying that stuff to Crona? Scaring him like that.' Maka thought to herself, in annoyance at the little Demon.

Maka quickly quells her anger at the Demon sword and speaks to Crona. "Don't listen to him, Crona. It was just a random thought I had. I know it's too soon for us to be thinking about that kind of stuff." Maka rests her left hand gently on Victor's head as he sleeps. "Sorry if I got you worked up over it." She finishes, with a big cheery smile; the same smile she gave Crona when they first became friends.

The timid swordsman, swallows the saliva in his mouth, laying his right hand on top of Maka's left and he smiles back at her, visually showing that she has once again eased his worries. Maka has a way of doing that to him, and he couldn't be more grateful for that.

Crona, looks into her eyes, feeling a sense of tranquillity and happiness when he does so; his fears and anxiety fading away by her kindness. 'Someone such as me, doesn't deserve to be with someone as good as her.' Thought the swordsman. He wants to say something to Maka, something to make her feel the same way as he does right now; he believed he owed her that much at least.

He opens his mouth to say something to her…

However, he's prevented by the sound of the front door opening, and then closing when three familiar figures enter the house.

"Hello you two. So, how's my little Victor doing, you guys?" Marie asked excitedly, to both Crona and Maka.

Both Maka and Crona, quickly retract their hands from Victor's head, and turn to face Marie, Stein, and Mac, who has walked home with them.

"Oh! Welcome back. Victor only fell asleep not too long ago." Maka replied.

"Well, he certainly lasted longer this time." Stein says, as he carefully lifts the sleeping child from the couch, to hold in his arms. "Did he behave while we were gone?"

"Yes, Professor Stein, he did, like always." Answered Crona.

The two student Meisters, lift themselves from the couch, and put on their coats, as they continued their conversation with Victor's parents.

"S… so how was your night out?" Asked Crona.

"A lot of fun!" Mac and Marie say in unison.

"Rough." Spoke a melancholic Stein, at the same time as the other two.

"Franken. It's alright. You were just having an off day." Said Marie.

"An off day?" Exclaimed Mac. He rolled three ones in a row! And two more a little while after!" The blue Professor turns to the gloomy screwhead next to him. "I hope you haven't inherited Azusa's curse." Mac says, half laughing at the hilarity they got into earlier in the night."

"Hahaha, don't worry Mac, I'm sure it not that serious."

"I wouldn't speak too soon, Marie."

The stitched Professor sighs. "I just want to say… it was all Spirit's fault."

With that Stein heads upstairs, to put little Victor to bed. Mac looks over at the TV.

"Ah, so you guys were watching the film?" He says to his two students in front of him, with a smile. "Was he enjoying it?"

"Y… yeah, he was really liking it." Spoke Crona, still feeling a little shy around his new Professor.

"I'm glad he did. Hopefully, next time he'll be able to finish it."

Stein returns from putting his son to bed, to join the others in the living room, bringing a brown folder with him. "Here comes your favourite scene, Mac." He states, whilst pointing at the TV.

The scene in the film that Stein's referring to is when the Spanish swordsman finally duels against the man he's been searching for. Maka, could see Mac's eyes sparkle as he viewed this scene. He even says the same lines the Spanish swordsman says before he slays his opponent, mimicking the same accent as the swordsman.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my Father. Prepare to die."

After quoting that line, he gleefully turns back to face his two students. "Ah. Such a good movie."

Stein gives the movie fan the folder he requested. "Here ya go. Everything we could find on Julie Taylor."

Taking the folder, Mac examines its contents.

'Julie Taylor? That name's familiar' thought Crona, unsure how that's possible.

Marie walks up to the young babysitters, and stuffs money into their hands. "Thank you both again for watching him. This is for a job well done." She cheerfully proclaims.

Maka, looks at her hand, wide-eyed; she looks back up at Marie. "Miss Marie! Please, you don't need to pay us! And besides this is too much!" Pleaded the pigtailed Meister.

"Don't be ridiculous. You've both done a great job, and this is your reward." Replied Marie, with a tone that clearly indicates she was going to have the final word on this.

The two babysitters admitted defeat and placed the money Marie gave them, safely in their coat pockets.

"Now, would any of you like a drink before you leave?" Asked Marie.

"No thank you, I'm fine." Answered Crona.

"Same with me. We need to get back and make sure those two don't burn our apartment to the ground." Said Maka, referring to Blair and Soul.

Marie looks at Mac, awaiting his answer.

"That's nice of you Marie, but I probably need to get going too."

Maka lifts up the bag full of board games she brought, sitting next to the couch, and then she, Crona, and Mac exit the building from the front door. Marie and Stein stand beside one other at the porch, as the others left. Once they said their goodbyes, Maka and Crona walked home; Mac Tire did the same, down another street.

"See ya later!" Said Mac, giving that same two finger salute, he has a habit of doing. "And Maka, Crona? I see you lot on Monday at that village, Grey Thicket. 'Kay?"

"Yeah, we'll see you then!" Replied Maka.

The three individuals disappear into the night, on the way to their respective homes.

As they return back indoors, Marie surprises her husband with a question. "Franken? Did you notice…?"

Stein gives an inquisitive look. "Notice what?"

"Never mind. Probably just my imagination." She says with a laugh.

The blonde-haired Death Scythe, turned off the TV and made her way upstairs, while Stein pulls out another envelope from under his coat.

She calls down to Stein. "You going to bed soon, hun?"

"Yeah, just a sec." He responds.

Stein opens the envelope, scanning the pages inside; they were copies of the files Mac asked for. The files contained information of a woman with pink hair named, Julie Taylor, she was from Fogtown but disappeared years ago, eighteen years ago to be exact. Stein found it strange that Mac was looking into something like this, what could it mean. A theory pops into Stein's mind; 'Perhaps this woman was in that picture Mac had. I should've asked him earlier. Oh well, I've plenty of time to talk to him' thought Stein.

Whatever interest Mac has with these documents and this missing woman, is anyone's guess. But who knows, maybe the answer will be clear eventually. Only time will tell.

 **Hey! I'm back folks! Sorry for that year long hiatus there, this chapter required quite a few rewrites. Well, at least I got it completed now, I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Also, for reference, here's a picture of what Mac Tire looks like and a picture of what their D &D game was like:**

art/Commission-MacTire-652461706

art/Losing-at-Dungeons-and-Death-Soul-Eater-Com-726718314


End file.
